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Political Romanism; 



OR, THE 



SECULAR POLICY 



OF THE 



PAPAL CHURCH. 



Rev. G. W. HUGHEY, A. M. 



CINCINNAri: ^-r 

HITCHCOCK AND WA L D E N . 

NEW YORK: 

CARLTON AND LANAHAN. 

1872. 





Eiiiered, according to act of Congress, in llie year 1872, by 

HITCHCOCK & WALDEN, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



/z~'5¥y 




PREFACE. 



'T^HE object of the writer of this little 
volume has not been to present argu- 
ments, but to set forth facts. He has been 
satisfied that t^ie high claims of the Roman 
Catholic Church to the supreme political power 
of her head, the Pope, over all the kings, 
rulers, and governments of the earth, is not 
fully understood by the American people, as 
it should be in order that the dangers which 
threaten our free institutions from this quar- 
ter may be averted. He is also fully satisfied 
that no logic is so convincing and unanswer- 
able as the logic of facts ; and hence he has 
presented, in a small compass, the facts of 



4 PREFACE, 

history on this question for the past eleven 
hundred years, so that every one may see for 
himself what the Pope claims, and what the 
Romish Church claims for him, on this mo- 
mentous question. 

The facts set forth in the following pages 
are the undeniable facts of history, and the 
deductions drawn from them are the legitimate 
and necessary consequences of them, and which 
no man of intelligence will for a moment ques- 
tion. The authorities quoted, whether Prot- 
estant or Romanist, are all standard authori- 
ties, and therefore every quotation may be 
fully relied on as authentic. 

The writer has endeavored to present to the 
reader such a complete compend of Roman 
Catholic teaching on this question, as to furnish 
every thing necessary for a full and perfect 
understanding of the doctrine of Rome on the 
political supremacy of the Pope, so that the 
object and aims of the hierarchy in this coun- 
try may be fully understood by every one. 



PREFACE. 5 

Hence he has been especially particular to 
quote freely from the Allocutions, Encyclicals, 
and Syllabus of Pius IX, so that the reader 
may see that the civilization of the nineteenth 
century has had no effect whatever in liberal- 
izing the Pope, or causing him to relinquish 
one jot or tittle of his high claim to political 
supremacy over the nations of the earth. He 
has also quoted largely from the protests, 
speeches, and resolutions of American Roman 
Catholics, clerical and lay, to show that the 
great mass of the Roman Catholic Church in 
this free country are just as strong advocates 
of the political supremacy of the Pope as the 
Papists of the Middle Ages were. 

In the hope that the facts set forth in this 
little volume may contribute to the awaken- 
ing of the public mind on this important ques- 
tion, the vmter submits it to a candid public, 
praying that his beloved native land may never 
be cursed with the withering shadow of Papal 
despotism, but that the tree of liberty, planted 



6 PREFACE. 

by the hand of Divine Providence in this fair 
heritage of freedom, and watered with the tears 
and blood of our fathers, may continue to 
grow and extend its branches, until all the 
oppressed and downtrodden children of earth 
shall find a secure retreat and safe protection 
beneath its shade. 

G. W. HUGHEY. 
Lebanon, Illinois, September, 1871. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. The Question Stated and Explained, . 9 
II. Bishop Purcell on the Temporal Power — 

O. A. Brownson on Gallicanism, . . 28 

III. Dr, Brownson on the Right of the Popes 

TO Depose Kings, 43 

IV, Position of Cardinal Bellarmine, . 55 
V. Teachings of the Leading Divines, . .71 

VI. Teachings of Popes and Councils, . , 79 

VII. Teachings of Popes and Councils, . . loi 

VIII. Teachings of Modern Popes, . . . 118 

IX. Allocution of Pius IX, . . . .145 

X. Modern Romanist Divines and Journals, 160 

XL First Constitution Concerning the Church, 176 

XII. General Summary, 193 

XIII. Occupation of Rome by the King of Italy, 220 

XIV. Dangers of Catholicism, .... 264 



POLITICAL ROMANISM. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE QUESTION STATED AND EXPLAINED. 

THE POPE OF ROME claims not only 
the right to govern, as a civil prince or 
ruler, what is, or has been, styled "The Patri- 
mony of St. Peter," and which has just now 
been wrested from him by the King of Italy, 
and which we fondly hope he may never re- 
gain ; but he also claims, by virtue of his of- 
fice as Vicar of Jesus Christ, at least an indi- 
rect supreme authority in temporals over all the 
kingdoms of the earth. In order that we may 
have the question fully before us in the begin- 
ning of our investigation of this important 
question, we will present a statement of the 

9 



lO POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

different views taken of this question even by 
Roman Catholics themselves, so that we may 
not appear to do them injustice in our remarks 
in the following pages. Bellarmine, than whom 
a higher authority among the standard writers 
of the Church of Rome can not be fourd, states 
the different theories of the temporal power of 
the Pope as follows : * 

"The first is, that the chief Pontiff, by Di- 
vine rights hath the fullest power over the whole 
world, as well in ecclesiastical as in political 
affairs. 

" The other opinion, placed on the other ex- 
treme, teaches that the Pontiff, as Pontijf, and 
by Divine right, hath no temporal power, nor 
can he, in any manner, govern secular princes, 
nor deprive them of their kingdom and author- 
ity, although they otherwise deserve to be de- 
prived — all the heretics of our times teach so. 

" The third is the middle, and is the common 
opinion of Catholic theologians, that the Pontiff, 
as Pontiff, has not directly and immediately any 
temporal power, but only spiritual power ; yet, 
on account of the spiritual power, he hath, 

* M'Clintock on the Temporal Power of the Pope, pp. 

Ill, 112. 



THE Q UESTION ST A TED. 1 1 

especially indirectly y a certain power, and that 
stcpreme^ in temporal matters/' 

The second view set forth by Bellarmine as 
that " held by all the heretics of his time," is the 
view also held by that party in the Romish 
Church known as Galilean, who always denied 
the supremacy of the Pope as held by the Ul- 
tramontane party, both in spiritual and tempo- 
ral things. But the Galilean party has always 
been largely in the minority, while the Ultra- 
montane party has always been the dominant, 
the controlling party; and it never was more 
so than at the present time. Gallicanism has 
been completely and entirely eradicated from 
the Church of Rome by the proclamation of 
Papal infallibility, and the Ultramontane doc- 
trine is the doctrine of the entire Roman Cath- 
olic Church. 

The teachings of the Galilean divines and 
universities, however, afford a cover behind 
which the defenders of the Romish Church in 
England and the United States retreat when 
pressed with the true teachings of their Church 
in regard to the temporal power of the Pope. 
Hence, nothing is more common than to hear 
them roundly deny his temporal stipremacy, and 



12 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

declare that the Church holds no such senti- 
ment. 

Cardinal Wiseman, in his lecture on the 
'' Supremacy of the Pope," denies any temporal 
power as belonging to the Pope at all, by virtue 
of his office as Pope, and contends for only a 
spiritual supremacy. He says: ''What then 
do Catholics mean by the supremacy of the 
Pope, which for so many years we were required 
to abjure, if we would be partakers of the bene- 
fits of our country's laws } Why, it signifies 
nothing more than that the Pope, or Bishop 
of Rome, as the successor of St. Peter, pos- 
sesses authority and jurisdiction, in things 
spiritual, over the entii^e Church, so as to con- 
stitute its visible head, and the vicegerent of 
Christ upon earth." (Lectures on the Doctrines 
of the Church, p. 226.) 

Again he says: "The supremacy which I 
have described is of a character /?/r^/j/ spiritual, 
and has no connection with the possession of 
any temporal jurisdiction. . . . Nor has 
this spiritual supremacy any relation to the 
wider sway once held by the Pontiffs over the 
destinies of Europe. That the headship of the 
Church won naturally the highest weight and 



THE QUESTION STATED, 1 3 

authority in a social and political state grounded 
on Catholic principles, we can not wonder. 
That power arose and disappeared with the in- 
stitutions which produced or supported it, and 
forms no part of the doctrine held by the 
Church regarding the Papal supremacy." {Ibid, 
pp. 227, 228.) 

Here Cardinal Wiseman teaches the senti- 
ments of the heretics, as stated hy Bellarmine. 
But how far his statements are correct concern- 
ing " the doctrine held by the Church regard- 
ing the Papal supremacy," we shall see as we 
proceed with our inquiry. 

Dr. Milner gives us the same view of the 
temporal power of the Pope as that presented 
by Cardinal Wiseman. He says : ^^ 

" It is not, then, the faith of this Church that 
the Pope has any civil or temporal supremacy 
by virtue of which he can depose princes, or 
give or take away the property of other per- 
sons out of his own domain ; for even the 
incarnate Son of God, from whom he derives 
the supremacy which he possesses, did not 
claim, here upon earth, any right of the above- 
mefitioned kind. On the contrary, he pos- 

* End of Controversy, pp. 282, 283. 



14 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

itively declared that his kingdom is not of 
this zvorld ! Hence, the Catholics of both 
our islands have, without impeachment even 
from Rome, denied, upon oath, that 'the Pope 
has any civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, 
or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within 
this realm.' But, as it is undeniable that dif- 
ferent Popes, in former ages, have pronounced 
sentence of deposition against certain contem- 
porary princes, and, as great numbers of theo- 
logians have held (though not as a matter of 
faith) that they had a right to do sOy it seems 
proper, by w^ay of mitigating the odium which 
Dr. Porteous and other Protestants raise against 
them on this head, to state the grounds on 
which the Pontiffs acted and the divines rea- 
soned in this business. Heretofore, the king- 
doms, principalities, and states composing the 
Latin Church, when they were all of the same 
religion, formed, as it were, one Christian re- 
public, of which the Pope was the accredited 
head. Now, as mankind have been sensible at 
all times that the duty of civil allegiance and 
submission can not extend beyond a certain 
point, and that they ought not to surrender 
their property, lives, and morality to be sported 



THE Q UESTION STA TED. 1 5 

with by a Nero or a Heliogabalus, instead of 
deciding the nice point for themselves, when 
resistance became lawful, they thought it right 
to be guided by their chief pastor. The kings 
and princes themselves acknowledged this right 
in the Pope, and frequently applied to him to 
make use of his indirect temporal power, as ap- 
pears in numberless instances." 

The British ''Roman Catholic bishops, the 
vicars apostolic, and their coadjutors," in set- 
ting forth their views on the rights of the king 
and the power of the Pope, give the same view 
as that set forth by Cardinal Wiseman and Dr. 
Milner, as may be seen in Elliott on Roman- 
ism, vol. ii, pp. 167 and 8. 

Bishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in his 
debate with Alexander Campbell, gives the 
same exposition of the temporal power of the 
Pope as that given by Wiseman and Milner, 
and quotes, with full approbation, from Bishop 
England's speech before the Congress of the 
United States, the following : * 

"We are now arrived at the place where we 
may easily find the origin and the extent of the 
Papal power of deposing sovereigns, and of 

* Campbell and Purcell's Debate, p. 344. 



1 6 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

absolving subjects from their oaths of allegi- 
ance. To judge properly of facts we must 
know their special circumstances, not their 
mere outline. The circumstances of Christen- 
dom were then widely different from those in 
which w^e now are placed. Europe was then 
under the feudal system. I have seldom found 
a writer, not a Catholic, who in treating of that 
age and that system, has been accurate, and who 
has not done us very serious injustice. But a 
friend of mine, who is a respectable member 
of your honorable body, has led me to read 
Hallam's account of it, and I must say that I 
have seldom met with so much candor, and 
w^hat I call so much truth. From reading his 
statement of that system it will be plainly seen 
that there existed among Christian potentates 
a sort of federation, in which they bound them- 
selves by certain regulations, and to the ob- 
servance of those they w^ere held not merely by 
their oaths but by various penalties ; sometimes 
they consented the penalty should be the loss 
of their station. It was, of course, necessary 
to ascertain that the fact existed before its con- 
sequences should be declared to follow ; it was 
also necessary to establish some tribunal to 



THE QUESTION STATED. 1/ 

examine and to decide as to the existence of 
the fact itself, and to proclaim that existence, 
x^mong independent sovereigns there was no 
superior, and it was natural to fear that mutual 
jealousy would create great difficulty in select- 
ing a chief, and that what originated in conces- 
sion might afterward be claimed as a right. 
They were, however, all members of one 
Church, of which the Pope was the head, and, 
in this respect, their common father; a7td by 
ttnivei'sal consent it was 7'egnlated that he should 
examine^ ascertain the fact, proclaim it, a^nd de- 
clare its consequences. Thus he did, in 7'eality, 
possess the power of deposing monarchs and of 
absolving their subjects front oaths of fealty, but 
only those monarchs who zvere members of that 
fedemtion, and in cases legally p7^ovided for, and 
by their concession, not by divine right, and dicr- 
ing the tenn of that federation and tlie existence 
of his commission. He governed the Church 
by divine right, he deposed kings and absolved 
subjects fror/i their allegiance by hitman conces- 
sion. I preach the doctrines of my Church 
by divine right, but I preach from this spot 
not by that right but by the permission of 
others. 

2 



1 8 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

"It is not then a doctrine of our Church 
that the Pope has been divinely commissioned 
either to depose kings, or to interfere with re- 
publics, or to absolve the subjects of the former 
from their allegiance, or interfere with the civil 
concerns of the latter." 

"The following,'' says Dr. Elliott,* "are the 
opinions of the universities of Sorbonne, Lou- 
vain, Douay, Alcala, and Salamanca, on the 
temporal power of the Pope, and furnished to 
the English Roman Catholics at their re- 
quest : 

" I. That the Pope or cardinals, or any body 
of men, or any individual of the Church of 
Rome, has not, nor have any civil authority, 
power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever 
within the realm of England. 

" 2. That the Pope or cardinals, or any body 
of men, or any individual of the Church of 
Rome, can not absolve or dispense his maj- 
esty's subjects from their oath of allegiance, 
upon any pretext whatever. 

"3. That there is no principle in the tenets 
of the Catholic faith by which Catholics are 
justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or 

* Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, p. 168. 



THE Q UESTION STA TED, 1 9 

other persons differing from them in religious 
opinions, in any transactions either of a public 
or a private nature." 

I have been thus particular in giving so 
fully the views of the Galilean faction of the 
Romish Church on the temporal power of the 
Pope, which has been adopted from political 
considerations by the Roman Catholic divines 
of England and the United States, that every 
occasion may be taken away for accusing me 
of unfairness in presenting the views of Roman 
Catholics on this important question. I have 
given those who charge Protestants with mis- 
representing the doctrines and teachings of 
their Church the privilege of speaking out 
fully on this question, and explaining what they 
are pleased to call the teaching of the Roman 
Catholic Church in regard to the temporal 
power of the Pope. Before proceeding to pre- 
sent the real Catholic doctrine of the sitpreme 
temporal power of the Pope, as held and taught 
by the Popes themselves, their general councils, 
and their admitted standards of theology, I 
wish to make a few observations on the fore- 
going extracts. 

I. It is remarkable, that neither Cardinal 



20 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

Wiseman, Dr. Milner, Bishop England, nor 
the five universities referred to, give us a sin- 
gle authority from Pope, council, or canon law, 
to sustain their views, or rather their explana- 
tions of the temporal power of the Pope! 
Why is this ? They could not have been 
ignorant of the fact that their explanations of 
the doctrine of their Church, unless supported 
by a7tthoritative documents, were only their 
opinions, and of no binding force whatever. If 
it had been possible for them to have fortified 
their positions by authoritative documents, such 
as the acts and decrees of general councils, 
Papal bulls, decretals, etc., the circumstances 
under which they were placed make it certain 
that they would have produced them ; for their 
opponents, of whom they complained as mis- 
representing and slandering the Church of 
Rome, were continually presenting, in support 
of the charges they brought against her, the 
acts of her general councils, the bulls and de- 
cretals of her Popes, and the declarations of 
her canon law. Against these oAUhoritative 
documents, those learned Roman Catholic 
divines place their explanations of the temporal 
power of the Pope, unsupported by a single 



THE Q UESTION STA TED. 2 1 

autJiojniy, and ask us to accept their unauthor- 
ized and unsupported explanations as the doc- 
trine of their Church on this important ques- 
tion ! 

2. Every one of the above parties, when 
tiiey gave the opinions and explanations 
above, gave them with the distinct knowl- 
edge and understanding, that they were given 
not as authoritative statements of the views 
and teachings of the Church of Rome, but 
merely as opinions v^hich must be held '^sub- 
ject to the judgment of the Church." This 
Cardinal Wiseman states on page eight of 
the preface to the work from v/hich I quote. 
He says : 

*' I need not say, that in this publication, as 
in every other that proceeds from my pen, / 
completely subject myself to the jitdgnient of the 
ChiL7xh, and mean to presei^ve tJie strictest adher- 
ence to every thing that she teaches!' If the 
Church should condemn these opinions, every 
one of those v/ho have expressed them, if liv- 
ing, would renounce them also, for this is the 
very principle of Roman Catholicism. Conse- 
quently such documents and opinions are of 
no force whatever in controversy on this ques- 



22 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

tion, and none are more fully aware of this 
than are Roman Catholics themselves ; and the 
very fact that they rely on such documents, and 
bring up such testimony as this, in defend- 
ing their Church from the grave charges which 
are brought against her under this head, is 
proof positive of a conscious weakness of their 
cause. 

3. The circumstances that called forth some 
of these declarations are strongly against those 
who hold the views they set forth on the tem- 
poral power of the Pope. The circumstances 
which called forth the declarations of the Uni- 
versities were of the most momentous char- 
acter to the Roman Catholics of Great Britain. 
They were struggling to obtain th^ir political 
rights ; but this very question of the temporal 
power of the Pope was in the way. The Brit- 
ish Government, after its sad experience for 
ten centuries with the See of Rome, was fear- 
ful of a return of former troubles, and it was 
guarding against the possibility of their recur- 
rence. The Roman Catholics, having learned 
priidence, at least, by their privations of polit- 
ical privileges, were anxious to have their disa- 
bilities removed ; but the claims of the Pope 



THE QUESTION STATED. 2^ 

and the teachings of the Church were in their 
way. 

So, instead of going to the authoritative 
acts and decrees of the Councils of the Church 
to learn what her real doctrines and the claims 
of her Pontiffs were, the British Catholics ap- 
pealed to the Universities, which they knew 
had no more power nor authority to declare 
what the claims of the Pope or the teach- 
ings of the Church were than they themselves 
had. The most effective way to quiet the 
fears of the Government would have been for 
them to show,/h?;^ the history of the past^ that 
those fears were groundless, and that the Pope 
made no claim to temporal supremacy. If my 
character is assailed in a certain point, the 
most effective method for me to adopt to vin- 
dicate myself is to go to the record I have 
made and show the charge is false. But this 
the British Catholics did not do, because they 
knew that the facts were all against them, and 
their only chance to make out a case in self- 
defense was to resort to yesuitical cunnings 
and get the testimony of the Universities, 
which would satisfy the unsuspecting, and, at 
the same time, it would be of no binding force, 



24 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

either on Pope, Council, or the Catholic subjects 
of the British Government. 

The same is also true, in a certain sense, 
concerning the speech of Bishop England be- 
fore the Congress of the United States. It is 
true Roman Catholics have never been de- 
prived of their political rights and privileges in 
this country; but the v/ell-known claims and 
character of their Church can not but cause 
uneasiness in the public mind for the safety of 
our free institutions, when we see the increase 
of Roman Catholicism in this country ; and it 
was to remove this uneasiness from the public 
mind that the Bishop made the address before 
Congress. But why did he not show, from the 
history of the past, that no such fe?trs need be 
entertained t This would have at once re- 
moved the whole difficulty, and set the public 
mind at rest on this question. But this is pre- 
cisely what that learned prelate would not at- 
tempt, because he knew too v/ell that the whole 
history of his Church was against the explana- 
tion he was attempting to give of the temporal 
power of the Roman Pontiff. 

4. But it is here admitted by these learned 
Roman Catholic divines that ''it is undeniable'' 



THE QUESTION STATED, 25 

that the Pope of Rome did dethrone kings and 
sovereign princes during the middle ages. The 
fact itself is fully admitted. But they tell us 
this was not done by " Divine 7nghtl' but by 
''human concessionr Bishop England tells us 
that during the confusion that prevailed in me- 
diaeval times, in order to prevent difficulties that 
might arise among the princes of Christendom, 
they entered into ''a sort of federation," of 
which the Pope, .as the head of the Church, 
was the head, and therefore possessed the right 
to enforce, even by excommunication and depo- 
sition, the terms and agreements of their arti- 
cles of federation. He says : 

*'Thus he did, in reality, possess the power 
of deposing monarchs, and of absolving their 
subjects from oaths of fealty; but only those 
monarchs zvlio were members of that federation, 
and in the cases legally provided for, and by 
their concession, not by Divine right, and dur- 
ing the term of that federation and the exist- 
ence of his commission. He governed the 
Church by Divine rigJit, he deposed kings and 
absolved subjects from their allegiance by hu- 
man concession!' 

Unfortunately for Bishop England, and those 



26 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

who take this view, or rather give this explana- 
tioii of the temporal power of the Pope, all the 
facts of history are against them. The Pope 
never claimed the right to depose sovereigns, 
and release their subjects from their obligation 
of allegiance to them ^^ by htimmi concession^' 
but always by '' Divine right!' This I shall 
prove by the most undeniable facts of history. 
Now, just here is the point in controversy. 
Did the Popes of the middle ages claim the 
right to depose kings and absolve their subjects 
from their obligations of allegiance by "hu- 
man concession," as claimed by their modern 
apologists, or did they claim to exercise this 
prerogative over the kings of the earth by " Di- 
vine right," as the successor of St. Peter and 
the vicars of Jesus Christ.'^ If they claimed 
that right by "human concession," as here 
contended by Bishop England, Dr. Milner, 
Cardinal Wiseman, and others, then, as they 
contend, when the circumstances passed away 
which called that power into being, that power 
or right itself passed away also. But if, on 
the other hand, they claimed and exercised 
that power by " Divine right," as the successors 
of St. Peter and vicars of Jesus Christ, the 



THE QUESTION STATED, 2/ 

right inheres in the office of Pontiff, and can 
not pass away; for it is a right and power 
that inheres in Papacy itself A change of 
circumstances may come over the Papacy, and 
it may lose the power to enforce this right; 
but this does not impair the right in the least, 
and Pius IX has the same Divine and inalieji- 
able right to depose heretical sovereigns to-day 
as Gregory VII or Innocent III had. It is 
true, the circumstances of society during me- 
diaeval times were such as enabled the Popes 
practically to carry out their claim to temporal 
supremacy; but the claim itself did not origin- 
ate in that condition of society, nor in the con- 
sent of the princes of Christendom ; and should 
circumstances ever become such again (which 
may God in his mercy forbid), the same claim 
would be practically carried out by the Pope, 
as we shall conclusively prove in the following 
pages. 



28 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 



CHAPTER II. 

BISHOP PURCELL ON THE TEMPORAL POWER— 
O. A-. BROWNSON ON GALIJCANISM. 

BEFORE giving the views of the Ultra- 
montane majority in the Church of Rome, 
which includes all her acknowledged standards, 
her Popes, her Councils, and her canon law, we 
will hear Bishop Pur cell once more. He says : 
" Christian charity and common sense, truth 
and justice, require imperatively that no one 
should be condemned without a hearing, or be 
charged with holding sentiments which he dis- 
avows. Here is the fullest, the clearest, the 
most unequivocal disavowal of the doctrine of 
the Pope's deposing power. We would be 
among the first to oppose him in its exercise ; 
and we would be neither heretics nor bad 
Catholics ; and we each of us bishops swear by 
the very words of the oath, ' Persequar et tnt- 

* Campbell and Purcell's Debate, p. 353. 



THE TEMPORAL POWER, 29 

pugnaboy salvo meo ordine^ in the sense speci- 
fied, which is the only true sense, the assump- 
tion of any such power by the Pope, or the 
Pope for the assumption of any such power. 
'' For ten centuries this power was never 

CLAIMED BY ANY PoPE. It CAN, THEREFORE, 
BE NO PART OF CaTHOLIC DOCTRINE. It HAS 
NOT GAINED ONE FOOT OF LAND FOR THE PoPE. 
It IS NOT ANYWHERE BELIEVED OR ACTED 

UPON IN THE Catholic Church. Nor can 

IT BE, AT THIS LATE DAY, ESTABLISHED, IF ANY 
MAN COULD BE FOUND MAD ENOUGH TO MAKE 

THE ATTEMPT. Let thcse go before the Amer- 
ican people as the real principles of Catholics 
concerning the power of the Pope. And, if we 
must pronounce a judgment on the past, let it 
be remembered that when the Pope did use 
this power it was when appealed to as a com- 
mon father, and in favor of the oppressed." 

The capitals and italics in the above are his 
own. It is true. Christian charity forbids that 
a man should be charged with holding senti- 
ments which he disavows, tmless it is apparenty 
cr can be shozvny that he is endeavoring to con- 
ceal his I'cal sentiments ; then justice demands 
that his hypocrisy shall be made manifest by 



30 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

showing what his real sentiments are. Noth- 
ing is more common than for men who enter- 
tain sentiments subversive of the best interest 
of society to deny those sentiments, or attempt 
to explain them away, when they are pressed 
in debate. Now, I will not charge Bishop 
Purcell with holding sentiments which he here 
disavows ; but I will charge him with not pre- 
senting the real doctrine of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church on the temporal power of the Pope. 
Whatever may be his sentiments, or the sen- 
timents of his fellow-bishops in this country, 
the above extract does not present the senti- 
ments of the Roman Catholic Church, as we 
shall very soon demonstrate. Nor can Bishop 
Purcell, nor any other bishop, nor all the bish- 
ops in the United States in council assembled, 
give us authoritatively the views of the Church 
on this or any other question. This can only 
be done by the head of the Church, the Pope, 
or a General Council, over which he or his 
legates preside. To this testimony we intend 
to appeal from this attempt to cover up the 
real sentiments of the Romish Church, and 
show that her authoritative teaching is diamet- 
rically opposed to the declarations of Bishop 



GALLICANISM, 3 1 

Purcell, and the Galilean teachings in general. 
I do not want the reader to forget the last 
sentence quoted from Bishop Purcell : " And 
if we must pronounce a judgment on the past, 
let it be remembered that when the Pope did 
use this power it was when appealed to as a 
common father, and in favor of the oppressed ! '* 

We shall see, as we proceed, how fully this 
declaration of the Bishop is sustained by the 
facts of history. Indeed, I am surprised that 
any man at all conversant with the facts of 
history should make such a reckless state- 
ment — a statement contradicted by the whole 
history of the Papal despotism. 

We will now hear what one of the ablest de- 
fenders of Catholicism in the United States has 
to say on this Gallican doctrine of the tem- 
poral power of the Pope — Dr. O. A. Brownson, 
in his Review, one of the ablest Catholic jour- 
nals ever published in America, outspoken and 
ultramontane in the extreme, and indorsed by 
twenty-five Catholic bishops in this country, 
among whom is John Baptist, Bishop of Cin- 
cinnati. In his review of a work written by 
M. Gosselin, a Gallican writer, on ''The Power 
of the Popes during the Middle Ages," in 



32 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

which the writer takes precisely the position 
taken by Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Milner, Bishop 
England, and Bishop Purcell, Dr. Brownson 
says : * 

" This excellent author, no doubt, believes 
that he has hit upon a theory which enables 
him to vindicate the conduct of the Popes and 
councils of the middle ages, in their relations 
to temporal sovereigns, without incurring the 
odium attached to the higher ground of Divine 
right, and this, he will pardon us for believing, 
is his chief motive for elaborating and defending 
it. He can not be unaware that the doctrine 
he rejects is the most logical, the miost con- 
sonant to Catholic instincts, the most honor- 
able to the dignity and majesty of the Papacy, 
or that it has undeniably the weight of au- 
.thority on its side. The principal Catholic 
authorities are certainly in favor of the Divine 
right, and the principal authorities v/hich he 
is able to oppose to them are of parliaments, 
sovereigns, jurisconsults, courtiers, and pre- 
lates and doctors, who sustained the temporal 
powers in their wars against the Popes. The 

*Brownson's Review for 1854, as quoted by M'Clintock, 
pp. 94, seq. 



GALLICANISM. 33 

Gallican doctrine was, from the first, the doc- 
trine of the courts in opposition to that of the 
Vicars of Jesus Christ, and should therefore be 
regarded by every Catholic with suspicion. 
M. Gosselin can not be ignorant of this, and 
therefore we must believe that he is attached 
to his theory principally from prudential con- 
siderations." 

Dr. Brownson here states the truth in regard 
to Gallicanism fully. It is, and always has 
been "the doctrine of the courts," and time- 
serving "prelates and doctors," and was never 
the doctrine of Rome, but has always been 
condemned by the Popes and Councils. Dr. 
Brownson states an "undeniable" fact that the 
reader must not forget, and that is, " the weight 
of authority" is on the side of the Divine right 
of the temporal power of the Pope. But this 
learned reviewer continues : 

"We do not like M. Gosselin's theory; we do 
not believe it, and could not believe it, without 
violence to our whole understanding of the 
Catholic system of truth. The author, in prin- 
ciple, is a. thorough-going Gallican, and, if he 
defends the illustrious Pontiffs who have been 
so maligned by non-Catholics and courtiers, he 

3 



34 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

does it on principles which seem to us to 
humiliate them and degrade them to the rank 
of mere secular princes. His theory, at first 
view, may have a plausible appearance, but it 
is illusory, like all other theories invented to 
recommend the Church to her enemies, or to 
escape the odium always attached to truth by 
the world. In saying this, we are not ignorant 
that many whom we love and respect embrace 
that theory in part, and explain and defend by 
it the temporal power exercised by Popes and 
Councils over sovereigns in the middle ages. 
They do not, indeed, agree with M. Gosselin in 
his denial that the Popes held that power by 
Divine right, but they think it suffices to ex- 
plain and defend it on the ground of human 
right. They agree with us as to the suprem- 
acy of the spiritual order, and the temporal 
jurisdiction of the Popes, but they think that 
all the objections of non-Catholics can be ade- 
quately and honestly answered without taking 
such high ground, and the ground of human 
right being sufficient and less offensive, it 
should, in prudence, be adopted, and the other 
doctrine be passed under the disciplina arcani. 
They therefore disapprove of the course we 



GALLICANISM. 35 

take, and wish we would content ourselves 
with more moderate views, not because we 
are uncatholic, but because we are imprudent, 
and subject Catholics to unnecessary odium." 
In this paragraph Dr. Brownson suffers his 
temerity to get the better of his judgment, and 
he lets out a fact that it is exceedingly im- 
portant that the people of the United States 
should know ; that is, that many of those Ro- 
man Catholic divines, who explain the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope during the mid- 
dle ages, as M. Gosselin, Bishop England, 
Bishop Purcell, and the Gallicans in general 
do when talking to non-Catholics, that is, when 
speaking before the public, agree with him 
"as to the supremacy of the spiritual order, 
and the temporal jurisdiction of the Popes!" 
They simply think him "imprudent." He 
speaks out too plainly, and, therefore, they 
would adopt the "less offensive" ground of 
"human right" in their public teachings before 
non-Catholics, while the doctrine of "Divine 
right" they would "pass under the disciplina 
arcaiii, " This disciplina a7xani, under which 
these Romish teachers would have their 7'eal 
doctrine on the question of the Pope's tem- 



36 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

poral supremacy pass, is the secret discipline^ 
or doctrine which is only revealed and taught 
to the initiated. This disciplina arcani has 
for centuries past been the refuge of Roman 
Catholic divines when pressed for authority for 
the corrupt practices and doctrines of their 
Church. Here Dr. Brownson tells the whole 
story on his brethren and friends, and lets out 
their secret. They agree with him, but they 
do not think it prudent in this country of free 
institutions, at least for the present, to speak 
out as he does. They will adopt the Galilean 
explanation before the public to allay the sus- 
picions and fears of non-Catholics, but they will 
hold their ultramontane views as a part of the 
disciplina arcani, the secret discipline and doc- 
trine of the Church which only the initiated 
are instructed in, and which non-Catholics 
have no business with until they get strong 
enough to enforce it, and then they will not 
hesitate to let us know their real sentiments. 

But the most remarkable thing in this whole 
paragraph is, "they think that all the objec- 
tions of non-Catholics can be adequately and 
honestly answered" by taking the ground of 
'' human right ! " Now how can any man think 



GALLICANISM. 3/ 

he is honestly answering "the objections of 
non-Catholics'' when he is stating what he 
knows to be false, arguing against his own 
convictions, and publicly and solemnly declar- 
ing that the Church holds the doctrine of the 
temporal supremacy of the Popes in the middle 
ages as originating in "human concessions'* 
and not in " Divine right," while he holds, and 
the Church holds with him, as a part of the 
secret doctrine, that the temporal supremacy of 
the Pope is of "Divine right," and not by "hu- 
man concessions " at all ! It will take a Jesuit 
to answer this question. No man can recon- 
cile such a course with honesty who does not 
hold that detestable and immoral doctrine of 
the Jesuits: "The end justifies the means." 
Roman Cathohc prelates may deny that such 
is the maxim of the Jesuits, but while men 
will act thus, and claim they are acting hon- 
estly, they can vindicate their conduct on no 
other principle. The end here sought is the 
subjugation of this country under the tem- 
poral jurisdiction and supremacy of the Pope; 
the means, is the denial, before the public — to 
non-Catholics, that the Pope claims, or the 
Church teaches any such supremacy ; this doc- 



38 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

trine is to be passed under the disciplina arcani^ 
and to be carefully taught to the initiated — 
those who will bear it, until the Church gets 
power sufficient to enforce her claims, and then, 
when it is too late to remedy the evil, we will 
be made fully to understand the claims of the 
Church, and the supremacy of the Pope ! 

This is the programme laid out for the 
emissaries of the Pope to carry out in this 
country, and this is the role they are now 
playing. Dr. Brownson, however, was a little 
too sanguine, being rather a young convert, 
and he lacked pmde^tce and let the secret out, 
and for this he deserves the thanks of all 
Protestants, and all true lovers of their coun- 
try. This is a charge brought against the 
Roman Catholic divines and teachers of the 
United States, not by their enemies, if so, 
the statement might be doubted ; but it is the 
testimony of one of the ablest defenders of 
the Roman Catholic Church in America, and 
who is thoroughly acquainted with the ques- 
tion, and who fully understands the plans and 
operations of that Church in this country. 
This one paragraph speaks volumes on the 
question before us, and the facts which Dr. 



' 



GALLICANISM, 39 

Brownson here reveals in self-justification, 
ought never to be forgotten by the lovers of 
civil and religious liberty. They reveal a deep- 
laid conspiracy against our liberties, to be car- 
ried on in the dark until such time as it will 
be safe to strike, and then its full extent and 
real objects will be fully manifested. 

Dr. Brownson, in vindicating his course fur- 
ther, in speaking out so plainly on the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope, against those 
prudent brethren, who do not disagree with his 
views, but who do not like to have him speak 
out so fully on this question because it "sub- 
jects Catholics to unnecessary odium," says : 

" We found a very general disposition among 
the Catholic laity to separate religion from 
politics, to emancipate politics from the Chris- 
tian law, to vote God out of the State, and to 
set up the people against the Almighty. Was 
this, in these revolutionary times, to be passed 
over in silence and no effort made to arrest the 
tide of political atheism.^ We saw our holy 
father driven into exile, we saw large numbers 
of nominal Catholics rejoicing at the impious 
usurpations of Mazzini & Co., sympathizing 
with the infamous assassins and parricides who, 



40 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

in the name of liberty and democracy, were 
seeking to overthrow the Papacy, and destroy 
the world's last hope. What was then our plain 
duty ? Was it not to assert the supremacy of 
God, the jurisdiction of the spiritual power, to 
expose the fatal error of Gallicanism, and, as 
far as we could, exhibit the real position of the 
Papacy in the Catholic system? So we have 
felt, and so we have done. We have always be- 
lieved it the duty of every publicist to defend 
the outraged truth, the truth that for the time 
being is the least popular, the most offensive 
to public opinion, therefore the most needed, 
and the most endangered. The popular truth, 
the truth which nobody questions, stands in 
no need of any special defense. It is the un- 
popular truth, as the unpopular cause, attacked 
by all the armies of error, and deserted by all 
its timid and time-serving friends, that calls for 
defenders, and that the Christian hero, or the 
really brave man, will make it his first duty to 
defend. ... If we had not found Catholics 
bringing out an erroneous doctrine on relig- 
ious liberty, and endeavoring to prove that 
Catholicity approves of religious liberty in the 
sense it is asserted by non-Catholics, we should 



GALLICANISM, 4I 

not have taken up the subject. ... As 
the denial of spiritual authority soon leads to 
a denial of the temporal, so a denial of the 
temporal soon leads to a denial of the spiritual. 
When we found democracy, even by nominal 
Catholics, embraced in that sense in which it 
denies all law, and asserts the right of the 
people, or rather of the mob, to do whatever 
they please, and making it criminal in us to 
dispute their infallibility, we felt that we must 
bring out the truth against them, and if scan- 
dal resulted, we were not its cause. The re- 
sponsibility rests on those whose obsequious- 
ness to the multitude made our opposition 
necessary. ... In proportion, as we wish 
to save religion and society, we must raise 
our voice against Gallicanism, turn to the 
holy father, and, instead of weakening his . 
hands and saddening his heart by our denial i 
of his plenary authority, re-assert his temporal* 
as well as spiritual prerogatives. We have no 
hope but in God, and God helps us only through 
Peter, and Peter helps us only through his suc- 
cessors, in whom he still lives and exercises 
his apostolate. Blame not us, then, if there 
are scandals, but them rather whose errors or 



42 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

whose timidity, whose indolence or worldly- 
mindedness have caused them, and made our 
course a painful duty." 

Dr. Brownson had evidently not learned the 
lessons of the Jesuits well when he penned the 
above article, or he never would have spoken 
out so much honest truth in regard to the 
claims of the Roman Catholic Church on the 
temporal supremacy of the Pope. It can not 
be denied that Dr. Brownson has as good op- 
portunities of knowing wJiat ^^ the real position 
of the Papacy in the Catholic system " is, as 
any man in America, and here we have his 
unequivocal testimony sustaining our position. 
He denounces those persons who hold and 
teach such sentiments as Bishop England, 
Bishop Purcell, Dr. Milner, etc., as timid, time- 
servers, obsequious, and their doctrine as " the 
fatal error of Gallicanism ! " We commend 
this article in Brownson's Review to the care- 
ful consideration of John B. Purcell, Arch- 
bishop of Cincinnati, and we hope it will teach 
him to be a little more orthodox on the ques- 
tion of the temporal power of the Pope. 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS. 43 



CHAPTER III. 

DR. BROWNSON ON THE RIGHT OF THE POPES 
TO DEPOSE KINGS. 

WE will now hear what Dr. Brownson 
says in regard to the right by which 
the Popes of the middle ages deposed kings 
and sovereign princes, and we shall see that 
he takes the true Roman Catholic view of this 
question also. He says : * 

''We have said that we believe Catholic 
dogma requires us to maintain at least the 
indirect temporal authority of the Popes or 
to forswear our logic, by which we evidently 
mean, not that it is Catholic dogma, but a 
strict logical deduction from it." 

Catholic writers sometimes try to dodge the 
force of the arguments of their opponents on 

*Brownson's Review, April, 1854, p. 191; quoted by 
M'Clintock on *'the Temporal Power of the Pope," pp. 
73 to 76. 



44 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

this question, by stating that the "temporal 
power of the Pope is not an article of faith in 
the Roman Catholic Church." But every one 
knows, who understands the requirements of 
that Church, that her authority does not ex- 
tend only to matters of faith, but it embraces 
also morals and discipline as fully as it does 
matters of faith. This is a matter or question 
of discipline, and therefore as binding as mat- 
ters of faith. But more of this hereafter. 
Dr. Brownson here, however, gives the true 
view of the question. It is "a strict logical 
deduction " from the dogma, or faith of the 
Church, as any one capable of drawing a log- 
ical conclusion from the plainest premises can 
see at once. But he continues : 

" Now, although we do not say that the Church 
commissions the State, or imposes the condi- 
tions on which it holds its right to govern, yet 
as it holds under the law of Christ, and on 
conditions imposed by that law, we do say that 
she, as the guardian and judge of that law, 
must have the power to take cognizance of 
the State, and to judge whether it does or does 
not conform to the conditions of its trust, and 
to pronounce sentence accordingly ; which sen- 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS, 45 

tence ought to have immediate practical execu- 
tion in the temporal order, and the temporal 
power that resists it is not only faithless to its 
trust but guilty of direct rebellion against God, 
the only real Sovereign, the Fountain of all law, 
and Source of all rights in the temporal order 
as in the spiritual." 

The reasoning here from the premises laid 
down by the Roman Catholic Church is wholly 
conclusive. Now, either the premises are false 
or the conclusion is inevitable. It is a matter 
of faith, an article of Roman Catholic dogma, 
that the Church is the "guardian and judge of 
the law of Christ;" that she has the right "to 
judge of the true sense and interpretation of 
the Holy Scriptures." This being the case, it 
necessarily follows that all who are subject to 
the law of Christ are subject to the Church as 
"the Divinely appointed guardian and judge of 
that law." The law of Christ regulates the 
duties of rulers and subjects, therefore the du- 
ties of rulers and subjects must legitimately 
come before the bar of the Church, and she, as 
the Divinely appointed judge of the law, must 
apply the law and affix the penalty. Dr. B.'s 
reasoning can not be answered, if we admit 



46 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

his premises, and his premises all Roman 
Catholics admit as an article of faith ! But 
he still goes on : 

" She mtcst have the right to take cognizance 
of the fidelity of subjects, since they are bound 
to obey the legitimate prince for conscience' 
sake, and therefore of the manner in which 
princes discharge their duties to their subjects, 
and to judge and declare whether they have or 
have not forfeited their trusts, and lost their 
right to reign or to command the obedience of 
their subjects. The deposing power, then, is 
inherent in her as the spiritual authority, as 
the guardian and judge of the law under which 
kings and emperors hold their crowns and have 
the right co reign ; for in deposing a sovereign, 
absolving his subjects from their allegiance, 
and authorizing them to proceed to the choice 
of a new sovereign, she does but apply the law 
of Christ to a particular case, and judicially 
declare what is already true by that law. She 
only declares that the forfeiture has occurred, 
and that subjects are released from their oath 
of fidelity who are already released by the law 
of God. 

" This power which we claim for the Church 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS. 47 

over temporals is not \\.^^i precisely a temporal 
pozver. We are, indeed, not at liberty to assert 
that the Church has no temporal authority, 
for that she has no temporal authority, di- 
rect or indirect, is a condemned proposition — 
condemned, if we are not mistaken, by our 
present holy father, in his condemnation of the 
work on canon law by Professor Nuytz, of Tu- 
rin — and we have seen that she has even di- 
rect temporal authority by Divine right ; but 
the power we are now asserting, though a 
power over temporals, is itself, strictly speak- 
ing, a spiritual power, held by a spiritual per- 
son, and exerted for a spiritual end. The tem- 
poral order by its own nature, or by the fact that 
it exists in the present decree of God only for 
an end not in its own order, is subjected to 
the spiritual, and consequently every question 
that does or can arise in the temporal order is 
indirectly a spiritual question, and within the 
jurisdiction of the Church as the spiritual 
authority, and therefore of the Pope, who, as 
the supreme chief of the Church, possesses that 
authority in all its plenitude. The Pope, then, 
even by virtue of his spiritual authority, has 
the power to judge all temporal questions, if 



48 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

not precisely as temporal, yet as spiritual — for 
all temporal questions are to be decided by 
their relation to the spiritual — and therefore 
has the right to pronounce sentence of deposi- 
tion against any sovereign, when required by 

the good of the spiritual order 

^^If the Church is the spiritual power, with 
the right to declare the law of Christ for all 
men and nations, can any act of the State, in 
contravention of her canons, be regarded as 
law ? The most vulgar common sense answers 
that it can not. Tell us, then, even supposing 
the Church to have only spiritual power, what 
question can come up between man and man, 
between sovereign and sovereign, between sub- 
ject and sovereign, or sovereign and subject, 
that does not come within the legitimate juris- 
diction of the Church, and on which she has 
not by Divine right the power to pronounce a 
judicial sentence ? None. Then the power he 
exercised over sovereigns in the middle ages 
w^as not a usurpation, was not derived from 
the concession of princes, or the consent of 
the people, but was, and is, his by Divine right, 
and whoso resists it rebels against the King 
of kings and Lord of lords. This is the 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS, 49 

ground upon which we defend the power exer- 
cised over sovereigns by Popes and Councils in 
the middle ages." 

Again, Dr. Brownson, in the April number 
of his Review for 1854, in reviewing the work 
of M. Gosselin, before referred to, says : * 

"All history fails to 3how an instance in 
which the Pope, in deposing a temporal sover- 
eign, professes to do it by the authority vested 
in him by the pious belief of the faithful, gen- 
erally received maxims, the opinion of the age, 
the concession of sovereigns, or civil constitu- 
tion and public laws of Catholic States. On 
the contrary, he always claims to do it by 
authority committed to him as the successor 
of the Prince of the apostles, by the authority 
of his apostolic ministry, by the authority 
committed to him of binding and loosing, by 
the authority of Almighty God, of Jesus Christ, 
King of kings and Lord of lords, whose min- 
ister, though unworthy, he asserts that he is — 
or some such formula, which solemnly and ex- 
pressly sets forth that his authority is held by 
Divine right, by virtue of his ministry, and ex- 

* M'Clintock on the Temporal Power of the Pope, pp. 
97, 98, and 99. 

4 



50 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

ercised solely in his character of vicar of Jesus 
Christ on earth. To this we believe • there is 
not a single exception. Wherever the Popes 
cite their titles, they never, so far as we can 
find, cite a human title, but always a Divine 
title. Whence is this } Did the Popes cite a 
false title } Were they ignorant of their own 
title?" 

Here the true doctrine of Rome is set forth, 
that ^//questions of every class must be viewed 
as spiritual^ and, as such, the Church has su- 
preme jurisdiction over them as the Divinely 
constituted guardian and judge of the law of 
Christ; and this supreme authority of the 
Church is vested in the Pope as the head of 
the Church and vicar of Jesus Christ in all its 
plenitude ! Here again it is asserted that no 
law of the State, contravening the canons of 
the Church, can '^be regarded as law." This 
is the doctrine of the Church of Rome to-day, 
and has been attempted to be carried into 
practical effect by the reigning Pontiff, Pius 
IX. This doctrine of the Church of Rome 
stands diametrically opposed to every principle 
of our Government ; and, should it prevail in 
this country, it would overthrow our free insti- 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS. 5 I 

tutions, and establish an absolute spiritual and 
political despotism under the supreme autoc- 
racy of the Pope. This is the aim of the 
Romish hierarchy in this country, as we shall 
show conclusively, and it therefore becomes 
every lover of his country, every friend of free 
government, to watch closely the movements 
of this, great enemy of human liberty and 
progress in our midst, and not permit it to lay 
its polluted hands upon the fair fabric of our 
glorious and free institutions. But Dr. Brown- 
son continues : 

*^ There are documents enough in which the 
Pope not only excommunicates, but solemnly 
deposes a prince, and in these very documents 
we find the title set forth, and the only title 
set forth is that derived from his apostolic 
ministry. Never does the Pope profess to de- 
pose, any more than to excommunicate, by vir- 
tue of any other than a Divine title. What- 
ever he does in the case, he always professes 
to do it by his supreme jurisdiction as the vicar 
of Jesus Christ, and the successor of Peter, the 
prince of the apostles. That the Popes will- 
fully erred, M. Gosselin can not pretend. . . . 

" One of two things, it seems to us, must be 



52 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

admitted, if we have regard to the undeniable 
facts in the case, namely, either the Popes 
usurped the authority they exercised over the 
sovereigns in the middle ages, or they pos- 
sessed it by virtue of their title as vicars of 
Jesus Christ on earth. We do not, therefore, 
regard M. Gosselin's theory as tenable ; and we 
count his attempted defense of the Pope on 
the ground of human right a failure." 

We would commend the above passage to 
the careful consideration of Archbishop Pur- 
cell, and those Roman Catholic prelates who 
agree with him, and quote with approbation 
the explanation which Bishop England gives 
of the temporal power of the Pope, and his 
deposition of kings and princes during the 
middle ages. The facts and arguments, as well 
as the *' weight of authority," are all on the side 
of Dr. Brownson, and against the Galileans. 
But Dr. B. continues : 

"There is, in our judgment, but one valid 
defense of the Popes in their exercise of tem- 
poral authority in the middle ages over sover- 
eigns, and that is that they possess it by Divine 
right, or that the Pope holds that authority by 
virtue of his commission from Jesus Christ as 



THE POPES' RIGHT OVER KINGS. 53 

the successor of St. Peter, the prince of the 
apostles, and visible head of the Church. Any 
defense of them on lower ground must, in our 
judgment, fail to meet the real points in the 
case, and is rather an evasion than a fair, hon- 
est, direct, and satisfactory reply. To defend 
their power as an extraordinary power, or as an 
accident in Church history, growing out of the 
peculiar circumstances, civil constitutions, and 
laws of the times, now passed away, perhaps 
forever, may be regarded as less likely to dis- 
please non-Catholics, and to offend the sensi- 
bilities of power than to defend it on the 
ground of Divine right, and as inherent in the 
Divine constitution of the Church; but, even 
on the low ground of policy, we do not think 
it the wisest in the long run. Say what we 
will, we can gain little credit with those we 
would concihate. Always, to their minds, will 
the temporal power of the Pope by Divine 
right loom up in the distance, and always will 
they believe, however individual Catholics here 
and there may deny it, or nominal Catholic 
governments oppose it, that it is the real Ro- 
man Catholic doctrine, to be re-asserted and 
acted the moment that circumstances render 



54 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

it prudent or expedient. We gain nothing 
with them but doubts of our sincerity, and we 
only weaken among ourselves that warm and 
generous devotion to the holy father which is 
due from every one of the faithful, and which 
is so essential to the prosperity of the Church 
in her unceasing struggles with the godless 
powers of this world." 

We can but admire the honesty of Dr. 
Brownson in speaking out so candidly and 
fully the real sentiments and doctrines of the 
Romish Church on the temporal power of the 
Pope, and we shall see, by the authentic docu- 
ments of the Church, that he does here pre- 
sent her real doctrine on this point, in opposi- 
tion to the Galileans and the time-serving and 
Jesuitical ultramontanes, who agree with him, 
but who would have their real sentiments 
"passed under the disciplina arcani^'' and on 
the ground of policy adopt the ground of hu- 
man right when speaking to non-Catholics. 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 55 



CHAPTER IV. 
POSITION OF CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 

CARDINAL BELLARMINE thus states 
and argues the question of the temporal 
power : 

"That the Pope, as Pope, although he has 
not any merely temporal power, hath never- 
theless, in order to a spiritual good, the su- 
preme power of disposing of the temporal con- 
cerns of all Christians. 

" That the Pope can not, as Pope, ordinarily 
depose temporal princes, even for just cause, 
in the same manner in which he deposes bish- 
ops — that is, as ordinary judge. Yet he can 
change the kingdoms, and take away from one, 
and confer on another, as supreme spiritual 
prince, if that is necessary for the salvation of 
souls. 

" This doctrine may be proved in a twofold 
way, namely, by reasons and examples. 



56 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

" The First Reason. The civil power is sub- 
ject to the spiritual power, when each is a part 
of the same Christian republic ; for the spirit- 
ual prince can govern temporal princes, and 
dispose of temporal affairs, for the purpose of a 
spiritual good, because every superior can gov- 
ern his own inferiors. 

"For the political power, as such, not only 
as it is Christian, but also as political, is subject 
to the ecclesiastical power. This is demon- 
strated: I. From the ends of each; for a tem- 
poral, or civil end, is subordinate to a spiritual 
end. This is plain, because a temporal felicity 
is not absolutely an ultimate end, so that it 
can be referred to eternal felicity. 2. Kings 
and Pontiffs, clergymen and laymen, do not 
make two republics, but one, that is, one 
Church ; for we are all one body : Romans xii ; 
I Corinthians xii. But in every body the 
members are connected, and depend the one 
upon another. But it can not be properly 
said that spiritual things depend on temporal ; 
therefore, temporal things depend on spiritual 
things, and are subjected to them. 3. If a tem- 
poral administration impedes a spiritual good, 
in the judgment of all, the temporal prince is 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 57 

bound to change that mode of administration, 
although it may be with the loss of a temporal 
good. Therefore, the standard is, that the 
temporal, or civil power, is to be subject to the 
spiritual. 

'* The Second Reason. The ecclesiastical state 
ought to be perfect and sufficient in itself, in 
order to obtain its own end. Such are all 
well-constituted states ; therefore, it ought to 
have every power necessary to accomplish its 
own end. But the power of using and dispos- 
ing of temporal, or civil things, is necessary 
to the spiritual end, because, otherwise, bad 
princes could, with impunity, cherish heretics, 
and overthrow religion. Therefore the spirit- 
ual power hath this authority. 

*' Furthermore, any state, because it ought 
to be perfect and sufficient of itself, ought to 
govern another state not subject to it, and 
force it to change its administration, nay, even 
to depose its prince, and institute another when 
it can not otherwise defend itself from the in- 
juries of the other. Therefore, much more 
can the spiritual kingdom govern the temporal 
state subject to it, and force it to change its 
administration, and deoose princes, and insti- 



58 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

tute others, when it can not otherwise accom- 
plish its own spiritual good ; and in this sense 
are to be understood the words of Bernard, 
lib. iv, de Consideratione ; and of Boniface VIII, 
in the Extravagant, Unam Sancta77t, on superi- 
ority and obedience, where he says that each 
sword is under the power of the Pope. {Cor- 
pus yur. Can, Extrav. Coin,, lib. i, tit. 3, cap. i.) 
Their meaning is, that the Pontiff possesses 
himself, and properly, the spiritual sword, and 
because the temporal sword is subject to the 
spiritual, the Pope can govern the king, or in- 
terdict the use of the temporal sword when 
the necessity of the Church requires it. 

" And such is the meaning of St. Bernard's 
words, which Boniface imitates. ^Why do 
you,' says he, addressing the Pope, ^endeavor 
at length to take up the sword which you once 
commanded to be put in the scabbard.^ He 
w^ho denies this sword to be thine, does not 
sufficiently attend to the Word of the Lord, who 
says thus: "Put thy sword into the sheath." 
Therefore, thy sword, and his, perhaps, by thy 
nod, is to be drawn out, not by thy hand ; 
otherwise, if in no manner it pertains to thee, 
we can not account for the saying of the apos- 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 59 

tie : " Behold, here are two swords." The Lord 
does not say it is too much, but it is enough. 
Each, therefore, belongs to the Church, namely, 
the spiritual sword and the material sword. 
But the latter is to be exercised for the 
Church, and the former by the Church. The 
one is to be used by the hand of the priest, 
the other by the hand of the soldier, but at 
the nod of the priest and the command of the 
emperor.' 

'' Here, also, it is to be observed, that when 
heretics reprehend the Extravagant of Boniface 
as erroneous, arrogant, tyrannical — for so they 
speak concerning it in general — they are to be 
admonished that they should consider that 
these are the words of Bernard in his books 
on Consideration. And without praising him, 
Calvin would seem to say, that Bernard spoke, 
in these books, as truth itself would seem to 
speak. 

" The Thifd Reason, It is not lawful for 
Christians to tolerate an infidel king or a 
heretic, if he should endeavor to draw away his 
subjects to his heresy, or to infidelity; but to 
judge whether the king does or does not draw 
them away to heresy belongs to the Pope, to 



6o POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

whom is committed the care of religion ; there- 
fore, it belongs to the Pope to judge whether 
the king is to be deposed or not to be de- 
posed. 

'' The proposition on this argument is proved 
from Deuteronomy xvii, where the people are 
prohibited to choose a king who is not of their 
brethren, that is, not a Jew, lest he would draw 
away the Jews to idolatry. Therefore, Chris- 
tians are also prohibited to choose a king who 
is not a Christian, for this is a moral precept 
and supported by moral equity. Again, it is a 
matter of danger and loss to choose one not a 
Christian, and not to depose one not a Chris- 
tian ; therefore Christians are bound not to 
suffer over them a king not a Christian, if he 
should endeavor to draw away people from the 
faith. But I add this condition for the sake 
of infidel princes who had dominion over their 
people, before the people were converted to 
the faith ; for if such princes do not endeavor 
to take away the faithful from the path, I do 
not think they should be deprived of their 
dominion, although St. Thomas thinks the 
contrary on 2. 2. quest. 10, art. 10; but if these 
same princes should endeavor to turn people 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE, 6 1 

from the faith, by the consent of all, they could 
and ought to be deprived of their dominion. 

''Moreover, to tolerate a heretical king, or 
an infidel, endeavoring to draw away men to 
his sect, is to expose religion to the most evi- 
dent peril ; for such as the ruler of the city is, 
such also are the inhabitants in it: Ecclesi- 
astes x; and also this proverb: The whole 
world copies the example of the king. And 
experience teaches the same; for because 
Jeroboam, the king, was an idolater, the 
greater part of the kingdom began to wor- 
ship idols : I Kings x ; and after the coming 
of Christ, in the reign of Constantine, Chris- 
tianity flourished ; in the reign of Constantius, 
Arianism flourished ; in the reign of Julian, 
Heathenism again flourished ; in England, in 
our own times, in the reign of Henry, and 
afterward, under Edward, the whole nation 
apostatized from the faith ; in the reign of 
Mary, the whole nation again returned to the 
Church ; in the reign of Elizabeth, Calvinism 
again began to reign, and the true religion 
went into exile. 

*' But Christians are not required, nay, they 
ought not, to tolerate an infidel king at the 



62 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

evident danger of religion ; for when Divine 
right and human right are opposed, Divine 
. right ought to be preserved at the expense of 
human right ; for it is a matter of Divine right 
to preserve the true faith and religion, which is 
one only, and not many. It is a matter of 
human right that we should have this or that 
king. 

" Finally, why can not a believing people be 
freed from the yoke of an infidel king who is 
leading them to infidelity, if a believing husband 
is free from the obligation of remaining with 
an unbelieving wife, when he is unwilHng to 
remain with a Christian wife, without injury to 
the faith, as is manifest from Paul: i Cor- 
inthians vii. Innocent III on the Canon 
Law. (Decret. Greg. IX, lib. iv, tit. 19, cap. 8, 
Gaudeamus) For the power of a husband 
over a wife is not less than that of a king 
over his subjects, and sometimes is greater. 

" The Fourth Reason, When kings and princes 
came to the Church that they might become 
Christians, they are received with this express 
condition, either expressed or understood, that 
their scepters should be subject to Christ, and 
they promise that they shall preserve and de- 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 63 

fend the faith of Christ, even under the pain of 
losing their kingdoms. When, therefore, they 
become heretics, or oppose religion, they can be 
judged by the Church, and even deposed from 
their dominion; nor is there any injury done 
them should they be deposed. For he is not fit 
for the sacrament of baptism who is not ready to 
serve Christ, and for his sake lose whatsoever he 
now possesses. Luke xiv : ' If any one cometh 
to me, and hateth not his father, and mother, 
and wife, and children, nay, even his own life, 
he can not be my disciple.' Moreover, the 
Church would err very much if she should tol- 
erate any king who would, with impunity, 
cherish any sect, and defend heretics, and over- 
turn religion. 

" The Fifth Reason, When it is said to Peter, 
^Feed my sheep,' John xxi, every power is 
given to him which is necessary to tend the 
flock.. But a threefold power is necessary for 
the pastor, namely, one respecting the wolves, 
that he might drive them av/ay in any manner 
he can ; another respecting the rams, that if 
any of them should hurt the flock with his 
horns, he could shut them in and prevent them, 
that they should not thereafter lead astray the 



64 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

flock ; the third is about the other sheep, that 
he would furnish to each of them suitable food. 
Therefore this triple power hath the supreme 
Pontiff." " Bellarmine de Rom. Pontiff, lib. v, 
cap. 7, tom. i, pages 1071 to 1075/' (M'Clin- 
tock on the Temporal Power of the Pope, pages 
112 to 116.) 

On the foregoing extract from Cardinal Bel- 
larmine we remark: 

1. He was born in 1542, and during his 
youth, and while he was prosecuting his 
studies in theology, the Council of Trent was 
in session, and he thus had abundant oppor- 
tunity to understand the real doctrines and 
sentiments of that inspired (?) body; and was 
in that period of life when the mind is sus- 
ceptible of receiving the most profound and 
indelible impressions, during the most im- 
portant part of that celebrated Council. 

2. He was the most learned controversial 
Roman Catholic writer of his time, and his 
position as "lecturer in Controversial Divin- 
ity," in the new college {Collegmm Romaniini) 
which had just been founded in Rome, and as 
"librarian of the Vatican," gave him the best 
opportunity of understanding fully the real 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE. 65 

• 

doctrine of the Church in regard to the tem- 
poral power. 

3. He Hved in an age when this, with every 
other claim of the Papacy, was assailed by the 
Protestant theologians and princes, and when 
every claim of the Church of Rome was un- 
dergoing the most rigid investigation ; and he 
stood forth in the very van of the hosts of the 
Papacy, and his theological battles were fought 
under the very eye of the Popes who filled the 
Papal Chair during his public life ; and his able 
defense of the Papacy and of the Church won 
for him the highest honors in the gift of his 
master. 

4. His writings have been recognized for 
more than two centuries and a half as of the 
highest authority among the standard works 
of controversial theology in the Church of 
Rome. Under these circumstances we must 
regard him as setting forth the real doctrine 
of the Church on the question of the temporal 
power. 

5. We have here the most unequivocal 
declaration of the Divine right of the Pope 
to exercise supreme power over " the temporal 
concerns of all Christians," and that " he can 

S 



66 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

change the kingdoms, and take away from one 
and confer on another, as supreme spiritual 
prince, if that is necessary for the salvation of 
souls." 

6. We have also the doctrine expressly set 
forth that "the civil power is subject to the 
spiritual power, when each is a part of the 
same Christian republic, for the spiritual prince 
can govern temporal princes, and dispose of 
temporal affairs, for the purpose of a spiritual 
good, because every superior can govern his 
own inferiors/' Here the doctrine of the Pa- 
pacy is set forth in regard to the superiority of 
the ecclesiastical over the civil government, 
and the consequent right of the Pope to gov- 
ern temporal princes, because they are inferior 
to him. 

7. Here we have, also, the express declara- 
tion that "the political power, as such, not 
only as it is Christian, but also as political, is 
subject to the ecclesiastical power.'' This is 
the doctrine of Rome, and has been for a 
thousand years, and is held to-day by all true 
Roman Catholics, as fully as it was by Bellar- 
mine in the sixteenth century. Here we are 
also explicitly taught that both the spiritual and 



CARDINAL DELLARMINE, 6/ 

the material swords belong to the Church : 
*'But the latter is to be exercised for the 
Church, and the former by the Church. The 
one is to be used by the hand of the priest, the 
other by the hand of the soldier, but at the 
nod of the priest and the command of the em- 
peror.'* The history of the Church of Rome 
during the middle ages is a fearful illustration 
of the doctrine here set forth by Bellarmine, 
and had she the power to-day, there are not 
wanting evidences to show clearly that she 
would prove true to her doctrine, and to her 
ancient practice. 

8. But here we are told further, that "it is 
not lawful for Christians to tolerate an infidel 
king, or a heretic, if he should endeavor to 
draw away his subjects to his heresy, or to in- 
fidelity." Again, '' Moreover, to tolerate a he- 
retical king, or an infidel, endeavoring to draw 
away men to his sect, is to expose religion to 
the most imminent peril." And again, "But 
Christians are not required, nay, they ought 
not to tolerate an infidel king at the evident 
danger of religion." And finally, we are here 
told, " Moreover, the Church would err very 
much if she should tolerate any king who 



68 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

would, with impunity, cherish any sect, and 
defend heretics, and overturn religion." Here 
we have the doctrine of Rome laid down, that 
*'it is not lawful" for the Church to tolerate 
any king or government that cherishes or tol- 
erates any sect or heresy, nor was the Church 
ever known to "err" in this respect, by tol- 
erating such king or government, when she 
had the power to enforce her claim to supreme 
temporal authority. 

9. But to complete this claim to absolute 
temporal supremacy over the kings and gov- 
ernments of the earth, we are here told, "to 
judge whether the king does or does not 
draw them away to heresy belongs to the 
Pope, to whom is committed the care of re- 
ligion ; therefore, it belongs to the Pope to 
judge whether the king is to be deposed or 
not to be deposed.^' 

How different are the teachings of this emi- 
nent Italian Cardinal, who wrote in the de- 
fense of the Papacy right under the eye of his 
master, and the declarations of the special 
pleaders for the Pope in England and the 
United States, where the pressure in favor of 
political and religious freedom, and against 



CARDINAL BELLARMINE, 69 

these absurd and tyrannical claims of the 
Church of Rome is so great that an open 
and honest avowal of the real doctrine of the 
Church on this question would not only sub- 
ject the teachers of such monstrous claims to 
just odium, but would also effectually block 
up the way of success in their scheme of 
proselyting the nation to the Roman Catholic 
faith ! But when we compare the teachings 
of Bellarmine with the declarations of Dr. 
Milner, Cardinal Wiseman, Bishop England, 
and Archbishop Purcell, the contrast is per- 
fect. We here meet with not even a hint of 
the " temporal supremacy resting upon the 
consent of the princes of Christendom," or 
" originating in human concessions," etc. But, 
on the other hand, it is expressly claimed to 
inhere in the Papacy itself, and to be essential 
to the preservation of the Church. This is 
the true doctrine of Rome, and the Pope, in 
the life-time of Cardinal Bellarmine, did, in the 
year 1570, in the plenitude of his power, as 
the vicar of Christ, and successor of St. Peter, 
thunder forth his bull of excommunication and 
deprivation against Elizabeth, Queen of En- 
gland, and absolved her subjects from their 



70 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

oath of allegiance to her, and forbade them 
to obey her mandates or laws under pain of 
anathema. This is testimony in regard to the 
claims of the Pope to temporal supremacy that 
amounts to something ; while the disclaimer of 
such special pleaders as Bishop England and 
Archbishop Purcell, put forth before the Amer- 
ican people for political effect, and unsupported 
by a single authority, and right in the face of 
both the teachings and history of the Church 
of Rome, are of no authority on the question, 
and were never intended or designed so to be ; 
but were only designed to lull the public mind 
to rest, which had become partially aroused and 
alarmed at the progress the Church of Rome 
was making in this land, consecrated by the 
blood of our fathers to civil and religious lib- 
erty. 



I 



TEACHINGS OF LEADING DIVINES. 7 1 



CHAPTER V. 

TEACHINGS OF THE LEADING DIVINES. 

IT is the doctrine of the canonists and di- 
vines of the Church of Rome, that the 
Pope has supreme temporal and spiritual juris- 
diction, over the whole world — some maintain- 
ing the direct, and others, like Bellarmine, the 
indirect temporal supremacy ; but all admit- 
ting — except the Galilean school, as we have 
seen — that it is a doctrine of Rome that the 
Pope is the supreme temporal and spiritual 
ruler of the world. 

Bellarmine tells us : " The first opinion is, 
that the Pope, by divine right, hath supreme 
power over the whole world, both in ecclesias- 
tical and civil aJBfairs. This is the opinion of 
Augustinus Triumphus, Alvarus Pelagius, 
Panormitanus, Hostiensis, Sylvester, and many 
others." (Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, p. 156.) 

Thomas Aquinas, the leading theologian of 



*]2 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

the Catholic Church, says : "In the Pope is 
the summit of each power." "When any- 
one is denounced excommunicate by his de- 
cision on account of apostasy, his subjects are 
immediately freed from his dominion and their 
oath of allegiance to him." (Ibid.) Bellar- 
mine tells us that in his book on the " Rule 
of Princes," St. Thomas affirms "that the 
Pope, by Divine right, hath spiritual and tem- 
poral power, as supreme king of the world ; 
that he can impose taxes on all Christians and 
destroy towns and castles for the preservation 
of Christianity." (Ibid.) 

Farrasis, in his " Ecclesiastical Dictionary," 
which is used as a standard for Roman Cath- 
olic divinity, and whose authorities are deduced 
from the acknowledged standards of the Church 
of Rome, gives the following outlines of Papal 
power under the word Papa, Article II : " The 
Pope is of such dignity and highness that he 
is not simply man, but, as it were, God, and 
the vicar of God. Hence, the Pope is of such 
supreme and sovereign dignity that, properly 
speaking, he is not merely constituted in dig- 
nity, but is rather placed on the very sum- 
mit of dignities. Hence, also, the Pope is 



TEACHINGS OF LEADING DIVINES. 73 

father of fathers, and he alone can use this 
name, because he only can be called the father 
of fathers, since he possesses the primacy over 
all, is truly greater than all, and the greatest 
of all. He is called most holy, because he is 
presum^ed to be such. On account of the ex- 
cellency of his supreme dignity he is called 
bishop of bishops, ordinary of ordinaries, uni- 
versal bishop of the Church, bishop or dio- 
cesan of the whole world, divine monarch, 
supreme emperor, and king of kings. Hence, 
the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as 
king of heaven, of earth, and {iiiferionnn) of 
hell. Nay, the Pope's excellence and power 
is not only about heavenly, terrestrial, and in- 
fernal things, but he is also above angels, and 
is their superior, so that if it were possible 
that angels could err from the faith or enter- 
tain sentiments contrary thereto, they could 
be judged and excommunicated by the Pope. 
He is of such great dignity and power that 
he occupies one and the same tribunal with 
Christ, so that whatsoever the Pope does 
seems to proceed from the mouth of God, as 
is proved from many doctors. The Pope is, 
as it were, God on earth, the only prince of 



74 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

the faithful of Christ, the greatest king of all 
kings, possessing the plenitude of power, to 
whom the government of the earthly and the 
heavenly kingdom is intrusted. Hence the 
common doctrine teacheth that the Pope hath 
the power of the two swords, namely, the spirit- 
ual and temporal, which jurisdiction and power 
Christ himself committed to Peter and his 
successors. Matt, xvi : * To thee will I give 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven,' etc., where 
doctors note that he did not say key, but keys, 
and by this comprehending the temporal and 
spiritual power, which opinion is abundantly 
confirmed by the authority of the holy fa- 
thers, the decision of the canon and civil law, 
and by the apostolic constitutions ; so that 
those who hold to the contrary seem to ad- 
here to the opinion of the heretics, reprobated 
by Boniface VIII, in his Extravagant, enti- 
tled " Unam Sancamr Hence, infidel princes 
and kings, by the decision of the Pope, may 
be deprived, in certain cases, of that dominion 
which they have over the faithful, as if they 
have occupied the country of the Christians 
by violence, or endeavor to draw away their 
faithful — Catholic — subjects from the faith, or 



TEACHINGS OF LEADING DIVINES, 75 

any such thing, as Bellarmine, Suarez, Bar- 
bara, Gonzalez, Cardinal Petra, etc., very fully 
demonstrate. And hence the Pope may cede 
those provinces, which formerly belonged to 
Christians, that were subsequently occupied 
by infidels, to any Christian princes to be 
redeemed. And if a king becomes heretic he 
can be removed from his kingdom by the 
Pope, to whom the right of appointing his 
successor belongs, if his sons and nearest rela- 
tives are heretics. Nay, in cases in which, on 
account of the heresy of the king, the re- 
ligion of his kingdom and the faith of others 
seem to be in danger, if he can in no other way 
prevent this loss, the Pope may not only de- 
prive him of his kingdom, but he may also 
concede it to a Christian prince and his suc- 
cessors, if this prince will fight for it and con- 
quer it. Hence it is not wonderful if to the 
Roman Pontiff, as vicar of Him whose is the 
earth and its fullness, the world and all they 
who dwell therein, to whom supreme authority 
and power are given, not only holds the spirit- 
ual, but also the material unsheathed sword, for 
just cause, of transferring empires, breaking 
scepters, and taking away crowns ; which 



*j6 POLITICAL ROMAKISIL 

plenitude of power not only once, but often, 
the Popes used, whenever it was necessary, 
by binding, most courageously, the sword on 
their thighs, as is sufficiently manifest, not 
only from the most ample testimonies of theo- 
logians, the asserters of Pontifical and regal 
right, but also of innumerable historians of 
undoubted credibility, as well profane as sa- 
cred, as well Greek as Latin/' (Ibid., pp. 156, 

157, 158.) 

Baronius, the great Roman annalist, teaches 
the same doctrine. He says : " There can be 
no doubt that the civil principality is sub- 
ject to the sacerdotal." And again : " God 
hath made the political government subject to 
the dominion of the spiritual Church." (Ibid., 
pp. 158, 159.) 

Elliott remarks : " Antoninus, Archbishop 
of Florence, who is counted a sound Roman 
Catholic divine, inculcates, as strongly as Fer- 
raris and the Popes themselves, the sovereign 
authority of the Bishop of Rome in all mat- 
ters, both spiritual and temporal. After ap- 
plying the eighth Psalm to the Pope, ' Thou 
hast made him a little lower than the angels,' 
and saying that all power in heaven and earth 



TEACHINGS OF LKADING DIVINES. yj 

was given to the Pope he proceeds : * For the 
Pope is greater than man, as saith Hostiensus, 
but less than an angel, because he is mortal, but 
greater in authority and power. For an angel 
can not consecrate the body and blood of 
Christ, nor absolve or bind, the jurisdiction of 
which exists in a plenary manner in the Pope ; 
nor can an angel ordain, grant indulgences, or 
any such thing. He is crowned with glory 
and honor — the glory of commendation, be- 
cause he is not only called blessed but most 
blessed, as saith the canon law. Who can 
doubt that he is holy, whom the summit of such 
great dignity hath exalted.'^ He is crovmed 
with the honor of veneration, that the faithful 
may kiss his feet ; for greater honor can not 
exist than that mentioned by the psalmist: 
"Adore his footstool." (Ps. xcviii.) He is 
crowned, also, with th'e greatness of authority, 
because he judges all persons, and is judged 
of none, unless he is found an apostate from 
the faith. Hence, also, he is crowned with a 
triple crown ; and is constituted over all the 
works of his hands to regulate concerning all 
inferiors ; he opens heaven, sends the guilty to 



78 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

hell, confirms empire, orders the clerical or- 
ders/' (Ibid., p. 159.) 

Volumes might be filled with such quota- 
tions as these fi*om the standard writers of the 
Romish Church, setting forth the absolute su- 
preme authority of the Pope in all things, tem- 
poral as well as spiritual, showing that this is 
the doctrine of the Church, and that those 
who deny it are either heretics, or bordering 
strongly on heresy, and are, therefore, not to 
be recognized as among the legitimate and 
authorized exponents of the sentiment and 
doctrine of the Church on this question. But 
these are sufficient ; and they show us conclu- 
sively that the Galilean teachings of Bishop 
England, Archbishop Purcell, Bishop Milner, 
and Cardinal Wiseman, instead of giving us the 
true doctrine of the Church of Rome on the 
temporal power, are condemned by the author- 
ized standards of the Church as bordering 
strongly on heresy, and repudiated by the 
Church. 



POPES AND COUNCILS, jg 



CHAPTER VI. 

TEACHINGS OF POPES AND COUNCILS. 

THE Popes of Rome have claimed supreme 
power over the kings of the earth for a 
thousand years past ; and since the time Greg- 
ory n succeeded in overturning the power of 
the Emperor Leo in Italy, in the year 730, they 
have put forth this claim, and, in many in- 
stances, have practically carried it out, as may 
be seen in Millman's Latin Christianity, Hal- 
lam's Middle Ages, De Cormenin's Lives of 
the Popes, or any authentic history of this 
period. This claim they did not ground upon 
human concession, but upon Divine right, as 
the successors of St. Peter and vicars of Christ. 
Gregory II writes to the Emperor Leo: 
"With the power given me by St. Peter, I 
could inflict punishment upon thee, but since 
thou hast heaped a curse upon thyself, I leave 
thee to endure it." (Milman's Latin Chris- 



80 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

tianity, vol. ii, p. 314.) Here is a distinct as- 
sertion of the right of the Pope to depose the 
Emperor by virtue of his office as the successor 
of St. Peter; and though he did not at that 
time exercise that right, yet he did this after- 
ward, and successfully overturned the power 
of the Emperor in Italy. 

Gregory III, successor to Gregory II, suc- 
ceeded in overturning the kingdom of the Lom- 
bards, through the power of Charles Martel, 
and thus secured the full establishment of 
the temporal power of the Pope as a civil ruler 
over the States of the Church. 

Leo III, by the restoration of the Western 
Empire, conferring the empire and the imperial 
crown upon Charlemagne, and proclaiming 
him *' Caesar Augustus," and the Emperor, by 
receiving the crown and empire at his hands, 
laid the foundation of that colossal power which 
three centuries later was fully developed under 
Gregory VII and Innocent III. By this trans- 
action, as Milman remarks, "The Pope (for 
Charlemagne swore at the same time to main- 
tain all the power and privileges of the Roman 
Pontiff) obtained the recognition of a spiritual 
dominion commensurate with the secular em- 



POPES AAW COUNCILS, 8 1 

pire of Charlemagne. The Emperor and the 
Pope were bound in indissoluble alliance ; and, 
notwithstanding the occasional outbursts of 
independence, or even superiority, asserted by 
Charlemagne himself, he still professed, and 
usually showed, the most profound veneration 
for the Roman spiritual supremacy, and left to 
his successors and to their subjects an awful 
sense of subjugation, from which they were 
not emancipated for ages/' (Milman's Latin 
Christianity, vol. ii, pp. 461, 462.) From this 
time to the reign of Gregory VII, the contest 
between the civil and ecclesiastical powers for 
supremacy continued, until the imperious will 
of Gregory brought every thing to submit to 
his authority. 

In the contest between Gregory VII and 
the Emperor Henry IV, the supreme temporal 
power of the Pope was not only explicitly set 
forth, but also practically carried out. After 
Gregory had received the formal citation from 
the Emperor to abdicate the chair of St. Peter, 
sitting in the midst of his third Lateran Coun- 
cil, of February, 1076, he addressed the 
assembled bishops thus : " Now, therefore, 

brethren, it behooves us to draw the sword of 

6 



82 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

vengeance ; now must we smite the foe of God 
and of his Church ; now shall his bruised head, 
which lifts itself in its haughtiness against the 
foundation of the faith and of all the Churches, 
fall to the earth, there, according to the sen- 
tence pronounced against his pride, to go upon 
his belly and eat the dust. Fear not, little 
flock, saith the Lord, for it is the will of your 
Father to grant you the kingdom. Long 
enough have ye borne with him ; often enough 
have ye admonished him — ^let his seared con- 
science be made at length to feel.'' The whole 
synod replied with one voice : *' Let thy wis- 
dom, most holy father, whom the Divine mercy 
has raised up to ncle the world in our days, 
utter such a sentence against this blasphemer, 
this usurper, this tyrant, this apostate, as may 
crush him to the earth, and make him a warn- 
ing to future ages Draw the 

sword, pass the judgment, that the righteous 
may rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, and 
wash his hands in the blood of the ungodly.'' 
On the next day, Gregory took his seat again 
in the Council, and proceeded to read his bull 
of excommunication and deprivation against 
the Emperor, which was thus : " In full confi- 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 83 

dence in the authority over all Christian people, 
granted by God to the delegate of St. Peter," 
" for the honor and defense of the Church, in 
the name of the Almighty God, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost, and by the power and 
authority of St. Peter, I interdict King Henry, 
son of Henry the Emperor, who, in his unexam- 
pled pride, has risen against the Church, from 
the government of the whole realm of Ger- 
many and Italy. I absolve all Christians from 
the oath which they have sworn, or may swear, 
to him, and forbid all obedience to him as 
king. For it is just that he who impugns the 
honor of the Church should himself forfeit all 
honor which he seems to have ; and because 
he has scorned the obedience of a Christian, 
nor returned to the Lord, from whom he had 
revolted by holding communion with the ex- 
communicate, by committing many iniquities, 
and despising the admonitions, which, as thou 
knowest, I have given him for his salvation, 
and has separated himself from the Church by 
creating schism : I bind him, therefore, in thy 
name, in the bonds of thy anathema, that all the 
nations may know and may acknowledge that 
thou art Peter ; that upon thy rock the Son 



84 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

of the living God has built his Church, and 
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it/' (Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. iii, pp. 
436-438.) 

Here we have the bull of Gregory VII, de- 
throning Henry IV, and it expressly claims to 
perform this act by the authority of St. Peter, 
and in the name of the Almighty God. Not 
a hint do we here have of this right having 
been conferred by the consent of the princes 
of Christendom — no intimation that it was 
done by human right or power, but by Divine 
right alone. This bull of deprivation was pro- 
nounced by the Pope from his throne in the 
Council of Bishops and Abbots, one hundred 
and ten in number, and is therefore an ex 
cathed^'a decision, and consequently infallible, 
if the infallibility of the Pope is to be be- 
lieved ! But this is not all. In vindication 
of his decree of deprivation, Gregory says : 
" If the Pope may judge spiritual persons, how 
much more must secular persons give an ac- 
count of their evil deeds before his tribunal ! 
Think they that the royal excels the episco- 
pal dignity 1 — the former the invention of hu- 
man pride, the latter of Divine holiness ; the 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 85 

former ever coveting vainglory, the latter as- 
piring after heavenly life. " The glory of a 
king," St. Ambrose says, " to that of a bishop, 
is as lead to gold." (Ibid., p. 445.) 

This bull of deprivation was no idle threat, 
as the Emperor learned by sad experience. 
To save himself from its consequences he was 
compelled to cross the Alps in midwinter, and 
submit to the most disgraceful humiliation to 
the Pope, in order to get the sentence of ex- 
communication and deprivation removed. 

The closing scene of this humiliation is thus 
described by Milman : " On a dreary Winter 
morning, with the ground deep in snow, the 
King, the heir of a long line of emperors, was 
permitted to enter within the two of the three 
walls which girded the castle of Canosa. He 
had laid aside every mark of royalty or of dis- 
tinguished station ; he was clad only in the 
thin white linen dress of the penitent, and 
there, fasting, he awaited in humble patience 
the pleasure of the Pope. But the gates did 
not unclose.' A second day he stood, cold, 
hungry, and mocked by vain hope ; and yet 
a third day dragged on, morning to evening, 
over the unsheltered head of the discrowned 



86 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

King. Every heart was moved except that of 
the representative of Jesus Christ. Even in 
the presence of Gregory there were low, deep 
murmurs against his unapostohc pride and in- 
humanity. The patience of Henry could en- 
dure no more ; he took refuge in an adjacent 
chapel of St. Nicholas, to implore, and with 
tears, once again, the intercession of the aged 
Abbot of Clugny. Matilda was present ; her 
womanly heart was melted ; she joined with 
Henry in his supplication to the Abbot, ' Thou 
alone canst accomplish this,* said the Abbot 
to the Countess. Henry fell on his knees, and 
in a passion of grief entreated her merciful in- 
terference. To female entreaties and influence 
Gregory at length yielded an ungracious per- 
mission for the King to approach his presence. 
With bare feet, still in the garb of penitence, 
stood the King, a man of singularly tall and 
noble person, with a countenance accustomed 
to flash command and terror upon his adver- 
saries, before the Pope, a gray-haired man, 
bowed with years, of small, unimposing stat- 
ure. The terms exacted from Henry, who 
was far too deeply humiliated to dispute any 
thing, had no redeeming touch of gentleness 



POPES AND CO UN OILS, 8 / 

or compassion. He was to appear in the 
place and at the time which the Pope should 
name, to answer the charges of his subjects 
before the Pope himself, if it should please 
him to preside in person at the trial. If he 
should repel these charg^^s, he was to receive 
his kingdom back from tlie hands of the Pope. 
If found guilty, he was peaceably to resign 
his kingdom, and pledge, himself never to at- 
tempt to seek revenge fcr his deposition. Till 
that time he was to assume none of the en- 
signs of royalty, perform no public act, appro- 
priate no part of the royal revenue which was 
not necessary for the maintenance of himself 
and his attendants. All his subjects were to 
be held released from their oath of allegiance. 
He was to banish forever from his court Ru- 
pert, Bishop of Bamberg, Ulric, Count of Cos- 
heim, with his other evil advisers. If he should 
recover his kingdom he must rule henceforward 
according to the counsel of the Pope, and cor- 
rect whatever was contrary to the ecclesias- 
tical laws. On these conditions the Pope con- 
descended to grant absolution, with the further 
provision that, in case of any prevarication on 
the part of the King on any of these articles, 



88 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

the absolution was null and void, and in that 
case the princes of the empire were released 
from all their oaths, and might immediately pro- 
ceed to the election of another king." (Ibid., 
pp. 456, 457.) 

Here we see the Pope assuming and enforc- 
ing the most absolute political supremacy, and 
that too as the successor of St. Peter, and by 
Divine right. This supremacy he proclaims 
from his throne in the midst of the assembled 
Council of Bishops, in the most imposing man- 
ner, as an ex cathedra decision, and it must 
therefore be accepted as the doctrine of infalli- 
bility on the temporal power of the Pope ! 

The reconciliation between the Emperor 
Henry and the Pope was of short duration, 
and Gregory proceeded again, in March, 1080, 
in the midst of his Council of Bishops, in 
the same ex cat]ied7'a manner, to issue a sec- 
ond bull of excommunication and deprivation 
against Henry. After his introduction and 
the recital of his former decree of excom- 
munication and deprivation, he proceeds : 

'' Wherefore, trusting in the justice and 
mercy of God, and of his blessed mother, the 
ever-blessed Virgin Mary, on your authority 



POPES AND COUNCILS, 89 

[that of St. Peter and St. Paul], the above- 
named Henry and all his adherents, I ex- 
communicate and bind in the fetters of anath- 
ema ; on the part of God almighty, and on 
yours, I interdict him from the government 
of all Germany and of Italy. I deprive 
him of all royal power and dignity. I pro- 
hibit every Christian from rendering him obe- 
dience as king. I absolve all who have sworn 
or shall swear allegiance to his sovereignty 
fromx their oaths. In every battle may Henry 
and his partisans be without strength and 
gain no victory during his life ! And that 
Rudolph, whom the Germans have elected for 
their king, may he rule and defend that realm 
in fidelity to you! On your part, I give and 
grant to those who shall faithfully adhere to 
the said Rudolph full absolution of all their 
sins, and, in entire confidence, blessing in this 
life and in the life to come. As for Henry, 
for his pride, disobedience, and falsehood, he is 
justly deposed from his royal dignity, so that 
royal power and dignity is granted to Rudolph 
for his humility, obedience, and truth." This 
awful sentence, in conclusion, says : " Come, 
then, ye fathers and most holy prelates, let all 



90 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

the world understand and know, that since ye 
have power to bind and loose in heaven, ye 
have power to take away and to grant empires, 
kingdoms, principalities, duchies, marquisates, 
counties, and the possessions of all men, ac- 
cording to their deserts. Ye have often de- 
prived wicked and unworthy men of patriarch- 
ates, primacies, archbishoprics, bishoprics, and 
bestowed them on religious men. If ye then 
judge in spiritual affairs, how great must be 
your power in secular, and if ye are to judge 
angels, who rule over proud princes, what may 
ye not do to these their servants } Let kings, 
then, and princes of the world learn what ye 
are, and how great is your power, and fear 
to treat with disrespect the mandates of the 
Church ; and do ye, on the aforesaid Henry, 
fulfill your judgment so speedily that he may 
know that it is through your power, not by 
chance, that he hath fallen — that he be brought 
to repentance by his ruin, that his soul may 
be saved in the day of the Lord." (Ibid., pp. 
479, 480, 481.) 

What becomes of Archbishop Purcell's 
theory of the temporal supremacy of the 
Popes of the middle ages, in the face of this 



FOPES AND COUNCILS. 9 1 

ex cathedra and infallible decree of deprivation 
against the Emperor Henry IV? Now, one 
of two things is certain : either the Popes' au- 
thority to depose kings rests upon Divine 
authority, and is inherent in their office as 
successors of St. Peter, or else Gregory VII, 
in this solemn ex cathedra and infallible de- 
cree, states a gross and deliberate falsehood, 
for he claims this deposing power as a Divine 
right which inheres in the office of Pope, as 
successor of St. Peter. We wish the reader 
to note particularly the line of reasoning by 
which Gregory establishes this right. It is : 
** The power of the Church is superior to the 
power of the State, bishops are superior to 
kings, etc. The Pope has the right to depose 
bishops who are superior, and, of course, he 
has the right to depose kings who are inferior." 
This has ever been the Papal argument to 
justify its interference with the poUtics and 
civil government of nations, and it is the argu- 
ment which the advocates of Papal suprem.acy 
bring forward to-day. ''The ecclesiastical is 
superior to the civil power," is a fundamental 
maxim with the Church of Rome, and any 
interference with the politics or civil govern- 



92 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

ments of the nations is justified, by which the 
interest of the Church may be subserved, or 
her jurisdiction and power extended. 

The Papal power reached its greatest height 
under the reign of Innocent III, the most 
talented, imperious, and daring of the Popes of 
the middle ages. In his bull, setting aside the 
claims of the Emperor Frederick II, and award- 
ing the imperial crown to Otho, he says : " It be- 
longs to the Apostolic See to pass judgment on 
the election of the emperor, both in the first and 
last resort : in the first, because by her aid, and 
on her account, the empire was transplanted 
from Constantinople ; by her, as the sole au- 
thority for this transplanting, on her behalf, and 
for her better protection: in the last resort, 
because the emperor receives the final confir- 
mation of his dignity from the Pope, is conse- 
crated, crowned, invested in the imperial dig- 
nity by him. That which must be sought is 
the lawful, the right, the expedient." (Mil- 
man's Latin Christianity, vol. iv, p. 510.) 

The learned and accurate Hallam, in speak- 
ing of the pontificate of Innocent III, says : 
''The maxims of Gregory VII were now ma- 
tured by more than a hundred years, and the 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 93 

right of trampling on the necks of kings had 
been received, at least among Chmxhmen, as 
an inherent attribute of the Papacy. As the 
sun and the moon are placed in the firmament 
(such is the language of Innocent), the greater 
as the light of the day, and the lesser of the 
night, thus are these two powers in the Church ; 
the pontifical, which, as having the charge of 
souls, is the greater, and the royal, which is 
the less, and to which the bodies of men only 
are intrusted." (Middle Ages, p. 2?>t) 

Every nation in Christendom felt the effects 
of the political interference of Innocent, and 
his thunders of interdict, excommunication, or 
deprivation, broke forth on every side against 
the contumacious kings and princes who dared 
to question his authority, or disobey his com- 
mands. By excommunication, interdict, and 
by absolving his subjects from their allegiance, 
he humbled the mightiest monarch of Europe, 
Philip Augustus, of France. But his absolute 
political supremacy over the kings of the earth 
was most fully developed in his contest with, 
and triumph over, the base and pusillanimous 
John, king of England. He laid his kingdom 
under interdict, he excommunicated him from 



94 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

the communion of the faithful, he pubhcly and 
solemnly deposed him from his kingdom, and 
declared his dominions ''the lawful spoil of 
whoever could wrest them from his unhallowed 
hands." (See Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. 
V, p. 32.) John was so completely humbled that, 
in order to reconciliation with the Pope, he 
delivered up his crown and kingdoms into his 
hands, and received them back from the Pope 
"as a fief of the holy see." Here is the article 
by which this base act was accomplished, as fur- 
nished by Milman : "Be it known to all men, 
that having in many points offended God and 
our holy mother the Church, as satisfaction for 
our sins, and duly to humble ourselves, after 
the example of Him, who, for our sake, hum- 
bled himself to death, by the grace of the 
Holy Ghost, with our free will, and the com- 
mon consent of our barons, we bestow and 
yield up to God, to his holy apostles, Peter 
and Paul, to our lord the Pope Innocent, and 
his successors, all our kingdom of England, 
and all our kingdom of Ireland, to be held as 
a fief of the holy see, with the payment of 
1,000 marks, and the customary Peter's pence. 
We reserve to ourselves, and to our heirs, the 



POPES AND COUNCILS, 95 

royal rights in the administration of justice. 
And we declare this deed irrevocable ; and if 
any of our successors shall attempt to annul 
our act, we declare him thereby to have for- 
feited his crown." (Ibid., pp. 37, 38.) 

The next day after this instrument was 
executed, John took the oath of fealty as the 
Pope's vassal, as follows: "I, John, by the 
grace of God King of England, and Lord of 
Ireland, from this day forth, and forever, will be 
faithful to God and to the ever-blessed Peter, 
and to the Church of Rome, and to my Lord, 
the Pope Innocent, and to his Catholic suc- 
cessors. I will not be accessory, in act or 
word, by consent or counsel, to their loss of 
life, of limb, or of freedom. I will save them 
harmless from any wrong of which I may 
know; I will avert all in my power; I will 
warn them by myself or by trusty messen- 
gers, of any evil intended against them. I 
will keep profoundly secret all communications 
with which they may intrust me by letter or 
by message. I will aid in the maintenance 
and defense of the patrimony of St. Peter, 
specially of this kingdom of England and Ire- 
land, to the utmost of my power, against all 



96 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

enemies. So help me God, and his holy Gos- 
pels." (Ibid., pp. 38, 39.) 

This disgraceful and traitorous act of the 
King against the liberties of the realm so en- 
raged the barons that they rose in their might, 
and by force extorted from the King " Magna 
Charta," that grand charter of rights which 
became the foundation of the English Consti- 
tution and of English liberty. When the Pope 
heard of this act of the barons he knit his brow 
with indignation and exclaimed: "What, have 
the barons of England presumed to dethrone 
a King who has taken the cross, and placed 
himself under the protection of the apostolic 
see.'* Do they transfer to others the patri- 
mony of the Church of Rome } By St. Peter, 
we can not leave such a crime unpunished." 
(Ibid., p. 50.) In his bull declaring the char- 
ter null and void, he attributes the conduct of 
the barons in this noble act of patriotism to 
the enemy of mankind. He says: 

"Vassals, they have conspired against their 
lord — knights, against their kings : they have 
assailed his lands, seized his capital city, which 
has been surrendered to them by treason. Un- 
der their violence, and under fears which might 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 9/ 

shake the firmest man, he has entered into a 
treaty with the barons — a treaty not only 
base and ignominious, but unlawful and un- 
just; in flagrant violation and diminution of his 
rights and honor. Wherefore, as the Lord 
hath said by the mouth of his prophet, ' I have 
set thee above the nations, and above the king- 
doms, to pluck up and to destroy, to build up 
and to plant ;" and by the mouth of another 
prophet, 'Break the leagues of ungodliness, 
and loose the heavy burdens/ We can no 
longer pass over in silence such audacious 
wickedness, committed in contempt of the 
apostolic see, in infringement of the rights of 
the King, to the disgrace of the kingdom of 
England, to the great peril of the Crusade. 
We, therefore, with the advice of our breth- 
ren, altogether reprove and condemn this char- 
ter, prohibiting the King under pain of anath- 
ema from observing it, the barons from exacting 
its observation ; we declare the said charter, 
with all its obligations and guarantees, abso- 
lutely null and void." (Ibid., p. 51.) 

He commanded a crusade against Count 
Raymond, of Toulouse, and conferred his ter- 
ritories on the cruel conqueror, Simon do 

7 



98 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

Montfort, as a reward for having purged the 
territory of ''heretical pravity," and this de- 
cree of Innocent was ratified by the Fourth 
Lateran Council. (See Milman, vol. v, p. 217.) 

But this is not all. '' The Fourth Lateran 
Council, one of the most numerous ever held 
in Christendom, was called upon to decide the 
course to be taken against heretics, and espe- 
cially the fate of Languedoc. It assumed the 
full power of deposing a sovereign prince and 
awarding his dominions to a stranger. Count 
Raymond, of Toulouse, was forever excluded 
from the sovereignty of the land, condemned 
to pass the rest of his life in exile, in some 
place appointed for him to do fit penance.'* 
(Ibid., pp. 211, 212.) 

This was one of the largest Ecumenical 
Councils ever held in the Church. " There 
were the patriarchs of Constantinople and 
Jerusalem, of Antioch and Alexandria — by 
deputy — seventy-one archbishops, four hun- 
dred and twelve bishops, eight hundred and 
sixty abbots or priors." (Ibid., p. 211.) This 
great Council decreed : 

"That if a temporal lord, being required 
and admonished by the Church, should neg- 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 99 

lect to purge his territory from heretical filth, 
he should, by the metropolitan and the other 
comprovincial bishops, be bound in the bonds 
of excommunication ; and if he should neg- 
lect to make satisfaction within a year it 
should be signified to the Pope that he might 
from that time pronounce the subjects to be 
absolved from their allegiance to him, and ex- 
pose the territory to be seized on by Catho- 
lics," etc. (Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, pp. 
163, 164.) 

Here we see the deposing power of the Pope 
put forth by the highest authority in the 
Church, and that, too, which is admitted by 
all Roman Catholics to be infallible, when 
speaking on questions of faith and morals — a 
general council presided over by the Pope or 
his legate. This is a question of both faith 
and morals, for it concerns heresy and the 
treatment of heretics. Hence all good Roman 
Catholics are bound to receive this decree of 
the Fourth Lateran Council, by which the 
Church claims the right, through the Pope, 
of deposing kings and sovereign princes, as 
the teaching of Divine Inspiration. Innocent 
claimed this power by Divine right and not by 



lOO POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

human concession. With him the temporal 
power was as far inferior to the spiritual as the 
moon is inferior to the sun, and that too by 
the Divine arrangement. Hence he felt that 
he had a right to reduce the kings of the earth 
to submission to his authority, and in this we 
see he was sustained by the inspired and in- 
fallible Council! What are we to think of 
Archbishop PurceH's Gallicanism, which he 
borrows from Bishop England, in view of 
these claims of Innocent III, and the Fourth 
Lateran Council ? Nothing was further from 
the mind of Innocent than the idea that he 
exercised his temporal supremacy over the 
kings of the earth by human concession. 
Such a thought never entered his mind ; but, 
on the contrary, he claimed to be set over 
the kingdoms by Divine appointment, "to 
pluck up and destroy, to build and to plant ;'* 
and hence he claimed that the Pope, as the 
vicar of Christ, has power to dethrone infidel, 
heretical, or apostate kings and princes, and 
appoint others in their stead. 



POPES AND COUNCILS, lOI 



CHAPTER VII. 

TEACHINGS OF POrES AND COUNCILS. 

GREGORY IX addressed the Emperor 
Frederick II, declaring that "kings and 
princes were humbly to repose themselves on 
the lap of priests ; Christian emperors were 
bound to submit themselves not only to the 
supreme Pontiff, but even to other bishops. 
The apostolic see was the judge of the whole 
world. God had reserved to himself the sole 
judgment of the manifest and hidden acts of 
the Pope. Let the Emperor dread the fate 
of Uzzah, who laid his profane hands on the 
ark of God." (Milman's Latin Christianity, 
vol. V, pp. 412, 413.) 

Gregory proceeded to excommunicate Fred- 
erick, and absolve his subjects from their alle- 
giance. During the memorable contest be- 
tween Frederick and the Papacy, Gregory died, 
but his successor. Innocent IV, kept up the 



102 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

contest, and, in the General Council of Lyons, 
solemnly deposed Frederick from the throne 
of the empire. Sitting in his pontifical seat 
in the Council, Innocent proceeded to recount 
the crimes which he charged against Frederick, 
and then pronounced the sentence : " The sen- 
tence of God must precede our sentence. We 
declare Frederick excommunicated of God, and 
deposed from all the dignity of empire, and 
from the kingdom of Naples. We add our 
sentence to that of God : We excommunicate 
Frederick, and depose him from all the dig- 
nity of the empire, and from the kingdom of 
Naples." After having pronounced this sen- 
tence. Innocent "began the hymn, * We glorify 
thee, O God!' His partisans lifted up their 
voices with him. The hymn ended ; there was 
profound silence. Innocent and the prelates 
turned down their blazing torches to the 
ground till they smoldered and went out, ex- 
claiming : ' So be the glory and the fortune 
of the Emperor extinguished upon earth.' " 
(Ibid., pp. 479, 480.) 

The Emperor resisted the tyranny of the 
Pope, and denied his right to any such author- 
ity as that of deposing kings. To this Inno- 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 103 

cent replied: "When the sick man, who has 
scorned milder remedies, is subject to the knife 
and the cautery, he complains of the cruelty 
of the physician ; when the evil-doer, who has 
despised all warnings, is at length punished, 
he arraigns his judge. But the physician only 
looks to the welfare of the sick man ; the judge 
regards the crime, not the person of the crim- 
inal. The Emperor doubts and denies that all 
things and all men are subject to the see of 
Rome. As if we, who are to judge angels, are 
not to give sentence on all earthly things ! In 
the Old Testament, priests dethroned unworthy 
kings ; how much more is the vicar of Christ 
justified in proceeding against him who, ex- 
pelled from the Church as a heretic, is already 
the portion of hell ! Ignorant persons aver 
that Constantine first gave temporal power to 
the see of Rome ; it was already bestowed by 
Christ himself, the true king and priest, as in- 
alienable from its nature and absolutely uncon- 
ditional. Christ founded not only a pontifical 
but a royal sovereignty, and committed to 
Peter the rule both of an earthly and a heav- 
enly kingdom, as is indicated and visibly proved 
by the plurality of the keys. The power of 



104 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

the sword is in the Church, and derived from 
the Church ; she gives it to the Emperor at 
his coronation, that he may use it lawfully, 
and in her defense; she has the right to say, 
' Put up thy sword into its sheath.' " (Ibid., p. 

483.) 

Comment is unnecessary on the language of 
Innocent, as we here have the most explicit 
declaration of the absolute and unconditional 
supremacy of the Pope over all things and all 
men ; and that, too, by Divine appointment. 
Innocent prosecuted, with the utmost vigor, his 
war against Frederick, and, after his death, 
against his children ; nor did the Papacy cease 
from the contest until the house of Hohen- 
staufen was driven from the imperial throne. 

Take these authoritative and ex cathedra de- 
cisions and declarations of the infallible Pope 
Innocent IV, and the action of the infallible 
Ecumenical Council of Lyons, sanctioning and 
ratifying the decree of deposition issued by the 
Pope against the Emperor, and compare them 
with the teaching of Archbishop Purcell, 
Bishop England, etc., and see how truthfully 
these men have represented the doctrine of 
their Church on the temporal power of the Pope ! 



POPES AND COUNCILS, 105 

Boniface VIII equaled Innocent III in the 
arrogance of his claims to temporal supremacy. 
His two celebrated bulls, '' Clericis LaiciSy' and 
" Unam Sanctamy' set forth the arrogant claims 
of the Papacy in their fullest extent. In the 
first, he declares the absolute immunity of the 
clergy from civil jurisdiction, and in the sec- 
ond, he declares the absolute necessity of the 
subjection of every human creature to the Pope, 
in order to salvation. In this bull Boniface 
says : " There are two swords, the spiritual and 
the temporal : our Lord said not of these two 
swords, 'it is too much,' but 'it is enough.' 
Both are in the power of the Church — the one, 
the spiritual, to be used by the Church ; the 
other, the material, /^r the Church ; the former, 
that of priests ; the latter, that of kings and 
soldiers, to be wielded at the command and by 
the sufferance of the priest. One sword must 
be under the other, the temporal under the spir- 
itual. . . . The spiritual instituted the tem- 
poral power, and judges whether that power is 
well exercised. ... If the temporal power 
errs, it is judged by the spiritual. To deny this, 
is to assert, with the heretical Manicheans, two 
equal principles. We therefore assert, define, 



I06 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

and pronounce that it is necessary to salvation 
to believe that every human being is subject 
to the Pontiff of Rome." (Milman's Latin 
Christianity, vol. vi, pp. 326, 327.] 

Here we have a formal ex cathedra and infal- 
lible decision of the Pope denouncing as heresy 
the denial of his absolute supremacy over the 
kings of the earth, in temporals as well as in 
spirituals. But this is not all ; this same in- 
fallible authority declares that "it is neces- 
sary to salvation to believe that every human 
being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome." 
Boniface evidently intended by this decree to 
make the supreme temporal power of the Pope 
an article of faith, and, according to the mod- 
ern doctrine of Papal infallibility, he succeeded 
in his attempt; and, if the doctrine of the 
modern infallibilists is true, the temporal su- 
premacy of the Pope is as much an article of 
faith as any dogma held by the Church of 
Rome. This extravagant of Boniface VIII 
was approved by the Lateran Council under 
Leo X, which is now reckoned as the "Fifth 
Lateran Council," and generally regarded as 
an Ecumenical Council. Baronius says of this 
bull : " All do assent to it, so that none dis- 



POPES AND COUNCILS. lO/ 

senteth who doth not fall from the Church." 
(Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, p. 165.) Here, 
again, we have an infallible Council, with an 
infallible Pope at its head, confirming the most 
extravagant of all the extravagants of the Popes, 
so that no one can deny the temporal suprem- 
acy of the Pope, without denying the infalli- 
bility of both Popes and general councils ; for 
both have decreed this doctrine in the most 
solemn manner. If the doctrine of the tem- 
poral supremacy is not true, then a General 
Council, presided over by the Pope, may err in 
regard to matters of faith ; for the Fifth Lateran 
Council, with Pope Leo X presiding, decreed 
that " it is necessary to salvation to believe that 
every human being is subject to the Pontiff of 
Rome." Now, if it is not necessary to salva- 
tion so to believe, then the Council did err in 
defining what it is necessary to believe in order 
to salvation ; and, if a General Council, with a 
Pope at its head, may err in defining what is 
necessary to believe in order to salvation, it can 
not be infallible. So this doctrine must be be- 
lieved by every Roman Catholic in the world, 
or the doctrine of infallibility must be entirely 
abandoned. 



I08 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

"Pope Paul III, in 1535 and 1538, excom- 
municated, cursed, deposed, and damned Henry 
VIII, of England, and all who adhere to, favor, 
or obey him ; absolves his subjects from all 
oaths of allegiance ; commands them all, un- 
der pain of excommunication, not to obey him, 
or ' any magistrate or officer under him ; nor 
to acknowledge the king, or any of his judges 
or officers, to be their superiors.' The same 
bull further declares King Henry, his accom- 
plices, and favorers, with their children and 
descendants, to be infamous, incapable to be 
witnesses, make wills, or be heirs to any ; in- 
capable to do any legal act; and that, *in any 
cause of debt, or any other cause, civil or crim- 
inal, none should be bound to answer them, 
and yet they bound to answer every body/ 
Omitting other things in this famous bull, he 
commands the ecclesiastics, secular and regu- 
lar, 'to quit the kingdom, and not return till 
the persons excommunicated, deprived, cursed, 
and damned be absolved from theircensures.'" 
(Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, p. 165.) 

The Council of Trent, while it remained si- 
lent in regard to the temporal supremacy of 
the Pope, from prudential considerations, was 



POPES AND COUNCILS. IO9 

very careful to do all it could for the confirma- 
tion of that power; and it therefore decreed, 
First. That none of its decrees should conflict 
with the authority of the apostolic see, as in 
Session vii, page 58, "Canons and Decrees of 
the Sacred and Ecumenical Council of Trent," 
translated by Rev. J. Waterworth, Roman 
Catholic : 

" The same sacred and holy synod, the same 
legates also presiding, purposing to prosecute, 
unto the praise of God, and the increase of 
the Christian religion, the work which it hath 
begun touching residence and reformation, has 
thought good to ordain as follows — saving al- 
ways, in all things, the authority of the apostolic 
seer 

Again: in Session XXV, chap, xxi, page 
277: 

" In all, the authority of the apostolic see 
shall remain untouched/' 

"Lastly: the holy synod declares that all 
and singular the things which, under whatso- 
ever clauses and words, have been obtained in 
this sacred Council, in the matter of reforma- 
tion of morals and ecclesiastical discipline, as 
well under the sovereign Pontiffs Paul III and 



no POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

Julius III, of happy memory, as under the 
most blessed Pius IV, have been so decreed as 
that the authority of the apostolic see both is, 
and is understood to be, untouched thereby." 

Second. In Session XXV, chap, xx, pages 
275, 276, ''The immunities, liberty, and other 
rights of the Church are recommended to sec- 
ular princes," the Council ordains and enjoins 
all things which the former Councils, the can- 
ons, and apostolic ordinances had enjoined or 
ordained. Here is the chapter: 

*' The holy synod being desirous that eccle- 
siastical discipline may not only be restored 
among the Christian people, but that it also 
may be forever preserved sound and safe from 
all manner of adverse attempts ; besides these 
things which it has ordained touching ecclesi- 
astical persons, has thought fit that secular 
princes also be admonished of their duty, 
trusting that they, as Catholics whom God hath 
willed to be the protectors of the holy faith 
and Church, will not only grant that to the 
Church her own right be restored, but will 
also recall all their own subjects to due rever- 
ence toward the clergy, parish priests, and the 
superior orders ; nor permit that their officers, 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 1 1 1 

or inferior magistrates, through any spirit of 
covetousness, or any heedlessness, violate that 
immunity of the Church, and of ecclesiastical 
persons, which, by the ordinance of God, and 
by the appointments of the canons, has been 
established ; but (see) that they render, con- 
jointly with the. princes themselves, due ob- 
servance to the sacred constitutions of sover- 
eign Pontiffs and Councils. 

"It ordains, therefore, and enjoins, that the 
sacred canons, and all the General Councils, 
as also all other apostolic ordinances, published 
in favor of ecclesiastical persons, of the liberty 
of the Church, and against the violators there- 
of-^all which it also renews by this present 
decree — be exactly observed by all men. And 
for this cause, it admonishes the emperor, 
kings, republics, princes, and all and each of 
whatsoever state and dignity they be, that the 
more bountifully they are adorned with tem- 
poral goods, and with power over others, the 
more religiously should they respect whatso- 
ever is of ecclesiastical right, as belonging to 
God, and as being under the cover of his pro- 
tection; and that they suffer not such to be 
injured by any barons, nobles, governors, or 



112 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

other temporal lords, and above all by their 
own immediate officers ; but punish those se- 
verely who obstruct her liberty, immunity, and 
jurisdiction ; being themselves an example to 
them in regard of piety, religion, and the pro- 
tection of the Churches, in imitation of those 
most excellent and religious princes their pred- 
ecessors, who not only defended from all in- 
jury from others, but, by their authority and 
munificence, in a special manner, advanced the 
interests of their own Church. Wherefore, let 
each one herein discharge his duty carefully, 
that so the Divine worship may be devoutly 
celebrated, and prelates and other clerics re- 
main, quietly and without hinderances, in their 
own residences, and in the discharge of their du- 
ties, to the profit and edification of the people/' 
Here the decrees of the Fourth Lateran 
Council, and that of Lyons, and the Fifth Lat- 
eran on the temporal supremacy of the Pope, 
are re-affirmed and enjoined, together with all 
other canons, and Papal constitutions, ordi- 
nances, etc., so that the Council of Trent, 
without touching the question of the temporal 
supremacy directly at all, did, nevertheless, in 
the most emphatic manner, teach and enjoin 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 1 1 3 

this doctrine, when it "ordained and enjoined" 
all the decrees of the former General Councils 
and Papal constitutions and ordinances. Here 
we find four General Councils, from the thir- 
teenth to the sixteenth centuries, expressly, 
and in the most positive manner, declaring 
and teaching the supreme temporal power of 
the Pope — one of them, the Fifth Lateran, ex- 
pressly declaring "that it is necessary to sal- 
vation to believe that every human being is 
subject to the Pontiff of Rome ;" and another 
one, that of Trent, re-afifirming, ordaining, and 
enjoining this decree! What must be thought 
of the declarations of Dr. Milner, Cardinal 
Wiseman, Bishop England, and Archbishop 
Purcell, in view of the teachings of these four 
infallible Councils 1 

"Pope Pius V, in the year 1570, in his bull 
against Elizabeth, entitled * The Damnation 
and Excommunication of Elizabeth, Queen of 
England, and her Adherents, with an Addition 
of Other Punishments,' declares as follows : 
' He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all 
power in heaven and in earth, committed one 
holy. Catholic, and apostolic Church (out of 
which there is no salvation) to one alone upon 



114 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

earth, namely, to Peter, the prince of the apos- 
tles, and to Peter s successor, the Bishop of 
Rome, to be governed in fullness of power. 
Him alone he made prince over all people and 
all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, 
consme, plant, and build.' 

''The bull furthermore declares: 'We do, 
out of the fullness of our apostolic power, de- 
clare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic 
and a favorer of heretics, and her adherents in 
the matters aforesaid, to have incurred the 
sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from 
the unity of the body of Christ. 

"'And, moreover, we do declare her to be 
deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom 
aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and 
privileges whatsoever. 

'"And also the nobility, subjects, and people 
of said kingdom, and all others which have in 
any sort sworn to her, to be forever absolved 
from any such oath, and all manner of duty, 
dominion, allegiance, and obedience ; as we also 
do, by the authority of these presents, absolve 
them, and deprive the same Elizabeth of her 
pretended title to the kingdom and all other 
things above said. And we do command and 



POPES AND COUNCILS. II5 

interdict all and every the noblemen, subjects, 
people and others, aforesaid, that they presume 
not to obey her, or her monitions, mandates, 
and laws. And those which shall do the con- 
trary we involve in the same sentence of 
anathema.' " 

Here Pius V expressly declares that he does 
this ''out of the fullness of our apostolic 
power;" not by human concession, but by 
that power conferred upon Peter and his suc- 
cessors by the Lord Jesus Christ, "oyer all 
people and all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, 
scatter, consume, plant, and build.'' 

''Pope Gregory XIII, who immediately suc- 
ceeded Pius V, renewed and confirmed the bull 
for deposing Elizabeth, and absolving her sub- 
jects from their allegiance. Sixtus V, who 
immediately succeeds, confirms the damnatory 
sentences of his two predecessors, and in addi- 
tion published a crusade against England, as 
against the Turks, and gave a plenary indul- 
gence to all who would assist in the war. 

"In the year 1585, the bull of Sixtus V, 
against the two sons of wrath, Henry, King 
of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, declares : 
'The authority given to St. Peter and his sue- 



Il6 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

cessors, by the immense power of the Eternal 
King, excels all the powers of earthly kings 
and princes. It passeth uncontrollable sen- 
tence upon them all. And if it find any of 
them resisting God's ordinance, it takes more 
severe vengeance on them, casting them down 
from their thrones, however powerful they may 
be, and tumbling them down to the lowest 
parts of the earth, as the ministers of aspiring 
Lucifer.' 

" He then proceeds to thunder against them : 
*We deprive them and their posterity forever 
of their dominions and kingdoms.' 

"He next formally absolves their subjects 
from their allegiance : * By the authority of 
these presents, we do absolve and set free all 
persons, as well jointly as severally, from any 
such oath, and from all duty whatsoever in re- 
gard of dominion, fealty, and obedience; and 
do charge and forbid all and every of them, 
that they do not dare obey them, or any of 
their admonitions, laws, and commands.'" 
(Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, pp. 165, 166, 

167.) 

Stronger language could not be used to ex- 
press the most absolute temporal supremacy 



POPES AND COUNCILS. 1 1 / 

over the kings of the earth than is here used 
by Sixtus V, and this supremacy he claims by 
virtue of his office as the successor of St. Peter, 
not by human concession. Thus we see, that 
from the beginning of the eighth to the close 
of the sixteenth century, embracing a period 
of nearly nine hundred years, the Popes of 
Rome claimed the right, by the appointment 
of Jesus Christ, and as the successors of St. 
Peter, to exercise supreme temporal jurisdic- 
tion over all the kings and governments of 
earth. We also find this claim put forth for 
them by the leading theologians of the Roman 
Catholic Church from the days of Thomas 
Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, and sus- 
tained by the decisions of four of their infalli- 
ble General Councils, from the thirteenth to 
the sixteenth century. Now, we ask again, 
what is to be thought of the declarations of 
Bishop England and Archbishop Purcell on 
the temporal power of the Pope, in view of 
these undeniable facts of history.? 



1 1 8 POLITICAL ROMANISM 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 

BUT perhaps it may be thought that modern 
Popes have abandoned the claim of the 
mediaeval Popes to supreme temporal pov/er 
over the kings and governments of the earth. 
Those who entertain such an idea are en- 
tirely deceived in regard to the idea that Pius 
IX and his predecessors entertain, and have 
entertained since the close of the sixteenth 
century, of the temporal power of the suc- 
cessors of St. Peter over the kings and gov- 
ernments of earth. The faith of modern 
Catholics in the personal infallibility of the 
Pope compels them to accept the ex cathedra 
decisions of the mediaeval Popes on the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, as the 
infallible declarations of inspiration, and the 
decree of the Fifth Lateran Council, and the 
confirmatory bull of Leo X, confirming the 



TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES. I 1 9 

Extravagant of Boniface VIII, " Unain Saiic- 
tainl' makes it an article of faith, necessary to 
salvation, to believe that every human being 
is subject to the ''Pontiff of Rome," and the 
Popes of modern times, down to Pius IX, have 
held the temporal supremacy of the Pope as 
fully as Boniface VIII, or Paul IV, or Sixtus V, 
and they have attempted to exercise that su- 
premacy just as far as they thought they dare 
do it. 

In the year 1682, Louis XIV summoned the 
French bishops to an assembly at Paris, which 
passed the celebrated four Galilean articles, 
which caused the protracted contest between 
the See of Rome and the Galilean Church, 
which continued more than a century. These 
four articles contained the following proposi- 
tions : 

" I. That the Popes have no power from 
God to interpose, directly or indirectly, in the 
temporal concerns of princes or of sovereign 
states. 

" 2. That the authority of General Councils 
is superior to that of the Pope. 

''3. That the usages of the French Church 
are inviolable. 



120 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

"4. That the Pope is not mfalUble, in points 
of faith, unless his decisions are attended with 
the consent of the Church." (M'CUntock on 
the Temporal Power of the Pope, pp. 100, 

lOI.) 

On these propositions, Monseigneur Gous- 
set, Archbishop of Rheims, who stands higher 
at Rome, perhaps, than any other living 
French prelate, makes the following remarks : 
*'0n the passage of the Declaration it was 
presented to Louis XIV, who, in fact, had in- 
stigated it. The king, to incorporate it with 
the State law, issued a decree, declaring that 
all who desired to attain degrees in theology 
should maintain as the law of the land the 
opinions enunciated in the four articles. Pope 
Innocent XI did not hesitate to manifest 
his disapprobation ; he annulled and con- 
demned the acts of the Assembly of 1682, in 
his brief of April nth, in the same year. 'By 
these presents, in virtue of the authority given 
to us by the Omnipotent God, we condemn, 
rescind, and annul the acts of your Assembly 
in the business of the regale y with all that fol- 
lowed them.''' 

" Nor was Alexander VIII behind Innocent 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 2 1 

XI. On the 4th of August, 1690, he pub- 
lished the Constitution, ' Inter Multiplicesl in 
which he condemned, made void, and annulled 
all that had been done in the Assembly of the 
clergy of France in the year 1682, as well with 
regard to the regale as also to the Declaration 
and the four articles contained in it. * All and 
singular of the acts [of the Assembly], as well 
with regard to the extension of the jus regale 
as to the declaration concerning the power of 
the Church, and the four articles contained 
therein, we do condemn, destroy, annul, and 
make void.* 

*'Not less important to our understanding 
of the spirit and doctrine of the holy see is 
the fact that the Popes refused, for more than 
ten years, to grant bulls to such of the pre- 
lates — nominated to bishoprics — as had at- 
tended the Assembly and had signed the Dec- 
laration. It was not till the time of Innocent 

XII, in 1693, that the difference was accom- 
modated by means of two letters written to 
the Pope, one by the nominated bishops, and 
the other by Louis XIV. In the letter of the 
prelates, mark the following expression : ' We 
profess and declare that we grieve vehemently, 



122 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

and beyond the power of Vv^ords to express, over 
the acts of said Assembly, which have so greatly 
displeased your holiness and your predecessors ; 
and we declare, moreover, that whatever was 
decreed in that Assembly concerning the ec- 
clesiastical and pontifical authority, we hold to 
be not decreed, and declare that it is so to be 
held; 

"In 1794 Pope Pius VI, in his bull, Aiic- 
torem Fidei, which has been received without 
protest by all the Churches, renewed these dec- 
larations of his predecessors. Innocent XI and 
Alexander VIII. Moreover, he condemned as 
rash, scandalous, and supremely injurious to 
the holy see, the act of the synod of Pistoja 
(in its decree de la foi), adopting the Declara- 
tion/ The terms of this * Constitution ' are as 
follows: ^Wherefore, as the acts of the Galli- 
can Assembly were condemned and annulled, 
soon after their appearance, by our predeces- 
sor. Innocent XI, in his brief of April 1 1, 1682, 
and afterward, more pointedly, by Alexander 
VIII, in his Constitution, 'Inter Midtiplices', 
August 4, 1690, much more strongly does our 
pastoral solicitude require of us to reprove and 
condemn the recent adoption of those acts 



TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES, 1 23 

by the synod [of Pistoja] as rash, scandalous, 
and especially [mark well these words] injuri- 
ous in the highest degree to this apostolic see, 
after the decrees published by our predeces- 
sors ; and by this present Constitution we do 
reprove and condemn them, and decree that 
they are to be held as reproved and con- 
demned." (Ibid., pp. 103-105.) 

Remember that the first of the Galilean 
propositions, " condemned, destroyed, and an- 
nulled," by these modern Popes, coming down 
as late as the close of the eighteenth century, 
was, " That the Popes have no power from God 
to interpose, directly or indirectly, in the 
tem.poral concerns of princes or of sovereign 
States." Here we find the Popes, down to 
the close of the eighteenth century, solemnly 
declaring "that they have power from God to 
interpose, directly or indirectly, in the temporal 
concerns of princes or of sovereign States ;" 
and Innocent XI, Alexander VIII, and Inno- 
cent XII did "annul, destroy, and make void" 
the laws of the mightiest monarch of Europe, 
and the most zealous supporter of the Catho- 
lic Church during the latter part of the seven- 
teenth and the first part of the eighteenth 



124 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

centuries ; and a century later Pius VI re- 
newed and confirmed their decrees, thus an- 
nulling the Galilean articles, as " rash, scanda- 
lous, and supremely injurious to the holy see." 
Thus we find the doctrine of Gregory VII, 
Innocent III, and Boniface VIII the doctrine 
of the Popes at the close of the last century. 
Pope Pius VII, at the beginning of the pres- 
ent century, claims the same right to depose 
kings which the mediaeval Popes claimed, and 
he laments that the Church had fallen on such 
calamitous times that she could not enforce her 
rights in this regard. In 1805 Pius VII com- 
plained to his Nuncio, residing at Vienna, on 
the occasion of " certain portions of real estate 
which had belonged to ecclesiastics, had passed 
into the hands of Protestant princes," '' and re- 
minded him that, according to the laws of the 
Church, not only could not heretics possess 
ecclesiastical property, but also that they could 
not possess any property whatever, since the 
crime of heresy ought to be punished by the 
confiscation of goods. He added that the sub- 
jects of a prince, who is a heretic, should be 
released from every duty to him, freed from 
all obligation and all homage. * In truth,' 



TEA CHIjXGS of MODERN POPES, 1 2 5 

said he, ' we have fallen on times so calamitous 
and so humiliating to the spouse of Jesus 
Christ, that it is not possible for her to prac- 
tice nor expedient to recall so holy maxims ; 
and she is forced to interrupt the course of 
her just severities against the enemies of the 
faith. But if she can not exercise her right 
to depose the partisans of heresy from their 
principalities, and declare that they have for- 
feited all their goods, can she ever permit that, 
to enrich themselves, they should despoil her 
of her own proper dominions ? What a sub- 
ject of derision would she not present to 
these very heretics and unbelievers who, while 
they insulted her grief, would say that they 
had discovered the method of rendering her 
tolerant ?' " (Campbell and Purcell's Debate, 

p. 351.) 

Here the right to depose princes is expressly 
claimed by the Pope, and he deeply regrets and 
mourns that the times are so calamitous to the 
Church that she dare not attempt to enforce 
these rights of deposing princes and confis- 
cating their property. 

Gregory XVI, in the year 1832, in his de- 
nunciations of "liberty of conscience, liberty 



126 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

of speech, and of the press," shows the spirit, 
and proves that he was actuated by the same 
views of the civil supremacy of the Pope as 
Pius VII. 

But none of the Popes of the present century 
have spoken out more fully on the question of 
the temporal supremacy of the see of Rome, 
than Pius IX, the reigning Pontiff. In his 
Encyclical letter of December 8, 1864, and 
list of eighty condemned propositions accom- 
panying it, he speaks out in the clearest and 
fullest manner possible, setting forth the su- 
periority of the ecclesiastical over the civil 
power. Like Pius VII, he laments the ca- 
lamitous times on which the Church has fallen, 
and then he launches forth his denunciations 
against civil liberty and human progress in 
general. A full translation of the Encyclical 
and Syllabus was published in the New York 
Tribune^ of January 21, 1865, from which the 
following quotations are taken. In his "En- 
cyclical " he says : 

" But although we have not hitherto omitted 
to proscribe and reprove the principal errors 
of this kind, yet the cause of the Catholic 
Church, the safety of the souls which have 



TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 12/ 

been confided to us, and the well-being of 
human society itself, absolutely demand that 
we should again exercise our pastoral solici- 
tude to destroy new opinions, which spring 
out of the same errors as from so many sources. 
These false and perverse opinions are the more 
detestable as they specially tend to shackle and 
turn aside the salutary force that the Catholic 
Church, by the example of her Divine Author 
and his order, ought freely to exercise until, 
the end of time, not only with regard to each 
individual man, but with regard to nations, 
peoples, and their rulers, and to destroy that 
agreement and concord between the priest- 
hood and the Government which have always 
existed for the happiness and security of relig- 
ious and civil society. For, as you are well 
aware, venerable brethren, there are a great 
number of men in the present day who, apply- 
ing to civil society the impious and absurd prin- 
ciple? of naturalism, as it is called, dare to teach 
that the perfect right of public society and civil 
progress absolutely require a condition of hu- 
man society constituted and governed without 
regard to all considerations of religion, as if it 
had no existence, or at least without making 



128 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

any distinction between true religion and her- 
esy. And, contrary to the teaching of the 
Holy Scriptures, of the Church, and of the 
fathers, they do not hesitate to affirm *that the 
best condition of society is that in which the 
power of the laity is not compelled to inflict 
the penalties of law upon violators of the 
Catholic religion unless required by the con- 
siderations of public safety/ Actuated by 
an idea of social government so absolutely 
false, they do not hesitate further to propa- 
gate the erroneous opinion, very hurtful to the 
safety of the Catholic Church and of souls, 
and termed delirium by our predecessor, Greg- 
ory XVI, of excellent memory, namely, lib- 
erty of conscience and of worship is the right 
of every man ' — a right which ought to be pro- 
claimed and established by law in every well- 
constituted State, and that citizens are enti- 
tled to make known and declare, with a liberty 
which neither the ecclesiastical nor the civil 
authority can limit, their convictions, of what- 
ever kind, either by word of mouth or through 
the press, or by other means. But in making 
these rash assertions, they do not reflect, they 
do not consider that they preach the liberty 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 29 

of perdition, (St. Augustine, Epistle 105, al. 
166,) and that, 'if it is always free to hu- 
man conviction to discuss, men will never be 
wanting who dare to struggle against the truth 
and to rely upon the loquacity of human wis- 
dom, when we know by the example of our 
Lord Jesus Christ how faith and Christian sa- 
gacity ought to avoid this very culpable van- 
ity." (St. Leon, Epistle 164, al. 133, sec. ii, 
Boll, ed.) 

Here the highest claims of the mediaeval 
Popes to authority over the princes and gov- 
ernments of the nations are put forth by Pius 
IX, for he claims that the Church ought to 
exercise the same "salutary force" over '* na- 
tions, peoples, and their rulers," that she does 
over "individuals." No dominion on earth is 
so absolute and extensive as that which the 
Roman Catholic Church claims to exercise 
over her members — a dominion which extends 
over the body, the mind, the conscience, the 
life, and the property, absolute and uncondi- 
tional. This same absolute and uncontrolla- 
ble authority Pius IX claims for the Church 
as her right over "nations, peoples, and their 
rulers ;" thus subjecting all political authority 



130 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

on earth to the supremacy of the Bishop of 
Rome. This is no mere speculative theory 
with the reigning Pontiff, as we shall see, but 
a right which he has solemnly attempted to en- 
force, in more than one instance, in the middle 
of the nineteenth century. This extract also, 
together with the whole letter and Syllabus, 
denounces in the most emphatic manner those 
great principles of civil and religious liberty 
which lie at the very foundation of our civil in- 
titutions, and for which our fathers poured out 
their blood like water. The Pope here declares 
that "the Holy Scriptures, the Church, and 
the fathers teach that the best condition of 
society is that in which the laity is compelled 
to inflict the penalties of law upon the violators 
of the Catholic religion ;" or, in other words, 
"that the civil government ought to be com- 
pelled by the ecclesiastical power to punish 
heretics.'* Here the doctrine is unblushingly 
put forth that " the best condition of society is 
that in which the civil government is com- 
pelled by the ecclesiastical power to carry out 
her persecuting and bloody edicts ;" thus set- 
ting the Church up as a mistress over the na- 
tions, compelling them to carry out her man- 



TEA CHI AGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 3 1 

dates. This was the doctrine of Gregory VII, 
Innocent III, and Boniface VIII, and it is also 
the doctrine of Pius IX, and it answers exactly 
to the apocalyptic symbol of " the woman sit- 
ting upon the scarlet-colored beast," represent- 
ing " the city which reigneth over the kings of 
the earth." 

But he says again: "It is likewise affirmed 
'that the excommunications launched by the 
Council of Trent, and the Roman Pontiffs, 
against those who invade the possessions of 
the Church, and usurp its rights, seek, in con- 
founding the spiritual and temporal orders, to 
attain solely a terrestrial object ; that the 
Church can decide nothing which may bind 
the consciences of the faithful in a temporal 
order of things ; that the law of the Church 
does not demand that violations of sacred laws 
should be punished by temporal penalties ; and 
that it is in accordance with sacred theology 
and the principles of public law, to claim for 
the civil government the property possessed 
by the Churches, the religious orders, and other 
pious establishments." 

The decree of the Council of Trent, to which 
reference is here made, was passed in the 



132 POLITICAL ROMAMSM, 

twenty-second session of the Council of Trent, 
and is found in the eleventh chapter of the 
acts of that session, and is as follows : 

" If any cleric, or layman, by whatsoever dig- 
nity pre-eminent, be he even emperor or king, 
should be so possessed by covetousness, that 
root of all evils, as to presume to convert to 
his own use, and to usurp — by himself, or by 
others, by force or fear, or even by means of 
any supposititious persons, whether lay or cler- 
ical, or by any artifice, or under any colorable 
pretext whatsoever — the jurisdiction, property, 
rents, and rights, even those held in fee or un- 
der lease, the fruits, emoluments, or any sources 
of revenue whatsoever, belonging to any Church, 
or to any benefice, whether secular or regular, 
monts de piete^ or to any other pious places, 
which ought to be employed for the necessities 
of the ministers (thereof), and of the poor; or 
(shall presume) to hinder them (in any of the 
ways aforesaid) from being received by those 
unto whom they of right belong, he shall lie 
under an anathema until he shall have wholly 
restored to the Church, and to the adminis- 
trator or beneficiary thereof, the jurisdictions, 
property, efi!ects, rights, fruits and revenues. 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES, 1 3 3 

which he has seized upon, or in whatsoever 
way they have come to him, even by way of 
gift from a supposititious person ; and until he 
shall, furthermore, have obtained absolution 
from the Raman Pontiff." 

The Council of Trent also decreed, in chap, 
iii. Session XXV: "And every excommuni- 
cated person who, after lawful monitions, does 
not repent, shall not only not be received to 
the sacraments, and to communion and inter- 
course with the faithful, but if, being bound 
with censures, he shall, with obdurate heart, 
remain for a year in the defilement thereof, he 
may even be proceeded against as suspected 
of heresy." Now, what is the law of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church with regard to emperors, 
kings, and princes, who are stcspected of Jieresy ? 
Any one who favors heretics is liable to be, and 
really is, suspected of heresy by the Church 
of Rome. The law concerning princes sus- 
pected of heresy, or favoring heretics, was en- 
acted by the Fourth Lateran Council, under 
Innocent III, and is thus: "That if a tem- 
poral lord, being required and admonished by 
the Church, should neglect to purge his terri- 
tory from heretical filth, he should, by the met- 



134 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

ropolitan and the other comprovincial bishops, 
be bound in the bonds of excommunication ; 
and if he should neglect to make satisfaction 
within a year, it should be signified to the Pope, 
that he might from that time pronounce the 
subjects to be absolved from their allegiance to 
him, and expose the territory to be seized on 
by Catholics." (Elliott on Romanism, vol. ii, 
pp. 163, 164.) The Council of Trent con- 
firmed this law, together with all other acts of 
the General Councils, as we have seen in Session 
XXV, chap. XX ; so that Pius IX, in the above 
paragraph, indorses all these acts of the Coun- 
cil of Trent, and stands forth as the defender 
and upholder of those laws of the Church 
which depose those princes, kings, and empe- 
rors who appropriate the property of the 
Church to secular uses, or who even exercise 
jurisdiction over such property. 

Again he says : " And do not omit to teach 
'that the royal power has been established, 
not only to exercise the government of the 
world, but, above all, for the protection of the 
Church,' (St. Lent., Epist. 156, al. 125,) and 
that there is nothing more profitable and more 
glorious for the sovereigns of States and kings 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 3 5 

than to leave the Catholic Church to exercise 
its laws, and not permit any to attack its lib- 
erty ; as our most wise and courageous prede- 
cessor, St. Felix, wrote to the Emperor Zenon : 
* It is certain that it is advantageous for sover- 
eigns, when the cause of God is in question, to 
submit their royal will, according to the estab- 
lished rules, to the priests of Jesus Christ, and 
not to impose their will upon them/* (Pius 
VII's Epist, Encycl. Din., satis, 15th of May, 
1800.) 

Again, the sovereign Pontiff says : "Amid 
so great a perversity of depraved opinions, we, 
remembering our apostolic duty, and solicitous 
before all things for our most holy religion, for 
sound doctrine, for the salvation of the souls 
confided to us, and for the welfare of human 
society itself, have considered the moment op- 
portune to raise anew our apostolic voice, and 
therefore do we condemn and proscribe, gen- 
erally and particularly, all the evil opinions 
and doctrines specially mentioned in this letter, 
and we wish that they may be held as rebuked, 
proscribed, and condemned by all the children 
of the Catholic Church." 

Indeed, this Encyclical, and the accompany- 



136 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

ing Syllabus, may be regarded in no other light 
than as a bull against civil liberty, human 
progress, and Christian civilization. Pius IX 
here vainly seizes the car of human progress, 
and endeavors to roll it back into the barba- 
rism of the Middle Ages, and thus re-establish 
the political supremacy of the Pope over the 
kings and governments of the earth. But his 
zeal for the re-establishment and extension of 
the power of the Papacy will only the more 
speedily hasten its downfall, by more fully con- 
vincing the world that it is essentially opposed 
to human freedom, human progress, and modern 
civilization. 

The twenty-third proposition condemned in 
the Syllabus, as furnished in the Latin edition 
published in the New York Freeman s yoiirnal, 
Nov. 27, 1869, and the twenty-fourth, as found 
in the translation of the Tribune, reads as fol- 
lows : " Romani Poittifices et Concilia oecmnenica 
a limitibics suae potestatis recesserimt^jura priii- 
cipicm usnrpanmty atqtte etiain in rebics fidei et 
moriL'tn definiendis errarunV' — which the Trib- 
tme translates thus : " The Roman Pontiffs and 
Ecumenical Councils have exceeded the limits 
of their power, have usurped the rights of 



A 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 3 / 

princes, and have even committed errors in 
defining matters relating to dogma and mor- 
als." This dogma is condemned and anathe- 
matized by Pius IX, who here declares that 
the Fourth Lateran Council, in its law depos- 
ing those princes who would '' not purge their 
territories from heretical filth," and the Sec- 
ond Council of Lyons, which deposed the 
Emperor Frederick II, and the various Popes 
who deposed emperors, kings, and sovereign 
princes, did not " exceed the limits of their pow- 
ers, nor usurp the rights of princes ;" but that 
they were exercising the legitimate rights and 
powers of their office. Thus we see the reigning 
Pontiff justifies the most arrogant pretensions 
of the mediaeval Popes, and anathematizes all 
who dare to call in question their right to de- 
throne kings, and absolve their subjects from 
their obligations of allegiance. 

The twenty-fourth proposition of the Sylla- 
bus, according to the yoiaiial, and the twenty- 
third, according to the Tribitne, which meets 
the denunciation of Pius IX, reads thus : 
^^ Ecclesia vis inferendce potestatis non kabety 
neqtte potestatein ullain teinporalem directam 
vel indirectani' — which the Tfibune trans- 



138 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

lates thus : " The Church has not the power 
of availing herself of force, or any direct or in- 
direct temporal power." Here the reigning 
Pontiff, by anathematizing this proposition, 
declares " that the Church does have power to 
avail herself of force directly, and also indi- 
rectly, through the princes and civil rulers 
throughout the world, compelling them to 
carry out her mandates by force and civil pen- 
alties. 

The twenty-fifth proposition of the Syllabus, 
condemned by the Pope, reads thus : 

^^ PrcEter potestatcin episcopatui iiihcerentemy 
alia est attributa temporalis potestas a civili im- 
perio vel expresse vel tacite concessa^ revocanda^ 
propterea, cum libtcerit, a civili imperioT 

Translation — '' In addition to the authority 
inherent in the episcopate, further temporal 
power is granted to it by the civil power, either 
expressly or tacitly; but, on that account, 
also, revocable by the civil power whenever it 
pleases." 

Here is an express denunciation of the Gal- 
ilean theory of the temporal power of the Pope 
resting upon human concession, and a plain 
and unequivocal declaration that this temporal 



TEA CHINGS OF MODERN POPES. 1 3 9 

power is ijihei^ent in the episcopate of Rome, 
and not conferred by the civil powers. 

The thirtieth proposition of the Syllabus, 
condemned by Pius IX, reads : 

'' Ecclesice et pej^sojiamm ecclesiasticarum iin- 
inunitas a jure civili ortuin habuUr 

Translation — "The immunity of the Church 
and of ecclesiastical persons derives its origin 
from civil law." 

Here Pius IX boldly proclaims that the im- 
munity of ecclesiastical persons from the juris- 
diction of the civil law, which is the law of the 
Church of Rome, did not originate in civil en- 
actments, but that this immunity is secured by 
the law of God. It does not matter what crime 
an ecclesiastic may commit, the law of the 
Church of Rome does not allow him to be held 
to account to the civil law; but he must be 
judged by the law of the Church, and deprived 
of his ecclesiastical character, before the civil 
law can take hold of him ! This immunity of 
ecclesiastical persons is here not only justified 
by the Pope, but it is declared not to derive 
its origin from the civil power, but is inherent 
in the ecclesiastical character. This law of 
the Church, whenever it can be enforced, 



140 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

withdraws the allegiance of Romish ecclesi- 
astics from the civil power, and transfers it 
wholly to the Pope ; and, where it can not be 
enforced, it necessarily brings about a con- 
stant conflict between the civil and ecclesias- 
tical powers. 

The forty-second proposition of the Sylla- 
bus, condemned by Pius IX, reads : 

'^ In conflictu legitm uUnusqiie potestatis^ jus 
civile prcevaletr 

Translation — '^ In a legal conflict between 
the two powers, civil law ought to prevail." 

Here the supremacy of the ecclesiastical 
over the civil law is most expressly declared. 
In a conflict between the two powers, the civil 
ruler, as the inferior, must submit to the Pope 
as the superior! This is the doctrine of his 
Infallibility — Pius IX. What more arrogant 
claim did ever Innocent III put forth than 
this } Thus we see the spirit and doctrine of 
the Papacy is the same in the middle of the 
nineteenth century that it was in the begin- 
ning of the thirteenth ; the only difference^ be- 
tween it now and then is, it has for the present 
at least, happily for mankind, lost its power to 
enforce its claim of universal temporal suprem- 



TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES, 14I 

acy. After denouncing the Common-School 
system of education in the most emphatic 
manner, his hifallibility y in the fifty-fifth prop- 
osition, condemned in the Syllabus, says : 

^^ Ecclesia a Statzi, Stahisque ab Ecclesia 
jtingendus est!' 

Translation — "The Church must be sep- 
arated from the State, and the State from the 
Church." 

Here we have an emphatic denunciation of 
the American idea of the separation of Church 
and State, and the doctrine is proclaimed by 
his Infallibility that Church and State must be 
united — the Church, as the superior, to com- 
mand, and the State, as the inferior, to obey. 

The seventy-third proposition, condemned 
by the Syllabus, reads : 

" Vi contractus mere civilis potest ijtter Chiis- 
tianos constare veri nominis matrinioniuin ; fal- 
stimque esty aut co7ttractitm matrimonii inter 
Christianos semper esse sac7'amentumy aut nullum^ 
esse contractunty si sacramentum. excludatury 

Translation — "A civil contract may very 
well, among Christians, take the place of true 
marriage, and it is false either that the mar- 
riage contract between Christians must always 



142 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

be a sacrament, or that the contract is null if 
the sacrament does not exist." 

Here his Infallibility declares that all civil 
marriages are null, and consequently the rela- 
tions thus formed are adulterous, and the off- 
spring from such unions illegitimate. This is 
the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and she 
thus, through her General Councils and sover- 
eign Pontiffs, declares the laws of all countries 
recognizing civil marriage to be, in this respect, 
null and void; thus claiming and attempting 
to exercise supreme temporal jurisdiction in all 
Christian lands. 

The seventy-seventh and seventy-eighth 
propositions condemned in the Syllabus, read : 

" J J, Aetate hac nostra non mnplitis expedite 
religionem- CatJiolicam habeii tainqtcam unicani 
Status religionenij cete^'is qtcibiLscimtqiie ctdtibics 
exclusisr 

" J'i. Hinc laudabiliter in qnibtcsdam Cathol- 
ici 7iomi7iis regionibns lege cantuin esty tct homin- 
ibiLS nine immigraittibus lieeat publicum proprii 
cujusque cultus exereitiinn haberey 

Translation — " JJ, In the present day it 
is no longer necessary that the Catholic re- 
ligion shall be held as the only religion of the 



TEACHINGS OF MODERN POPES. - 1 43 

State, to the exclusion of all other modes of 
worship." 

'' 78. Whence it has been wisely provided 
by the law in some countries called Catholic, 
that immigrants shall enjoy the free exercise 
of their own worship." 

By the denunciation of these two proposi- 
tions, Pius IX not only justifies and approves 
of the persecuting edicts of former Pontiffs, 
and Catholic kings and princes, at the instiga- 
tion, and under the influence of the see of 
Rome ; but he shows us unmistakably that had 
the Church of Rome the influence and power 
she formerly had, she would compel the civil 
rulers of Christendom to again become her exe- 
cutioners to carry out her bloody edicts against 
all who would not submit to her authority. 

The eightieth proposition of the Syllabus, 
condemned by Pius IX, reads : 

^^ Romanics Pontifex potest ac debet cttin pro- 
gressu, cum liberalismo^ et cicm recenti civili- 
tate, sese reconciliare et componei^e!' 

Translation — '' The Roman Pontifl* can and 
ought to reconcile himself to and agree with 
progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.'* 

Here Pius IX puts himself squarely against 



144 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

" progress, liberalism, and modern civilization,*' 
and declares that the Roman Pontiff neither 
can nor ought to reconcile himself with either 
"progress, liberalism, or modern civilization!" 
'^Progress, liberalism, and modern civilization" 
are all against the Church of Rome, and as 
the one advances the other recedes ; and hence 
the Roman Pontiff lifts his apostolic voice in 
notes of grief and warning to the faithful, de- 
claring that "progress" is all wrong and im- 
pious, that "liberalism" is detestable and not 
to be countenanced by the faithful, and that 
" modern civilization " is so unchristian and 
detestable that his Infallibility neither can nor 
ought to reconcile himself to it, as in its prac- 
tical operations and results it is by the diffu- 
sion of knowledge among the people, surely 
and rapidly disintegrating that gigantic system 
of civil and ecclesiastical despotism which the 
Bishop of Rome has exercised over the nations 
of Christendom for so many centuries. 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX, I45 



CHAPTER IX. 

ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX. 

THE declarations of Pius IX, in his Encyc- 
lical Letter and his Syllabus, are not sim- 
ply idle talk ; they are the serious declarations 
of a man who believes himself to be possessed 
of supreme power over all the kings and gov- 
ernments of the earth, and the principles 
therein set forth, he has attempted to prac- 
tically carry out by annulling and setting aside 
the laws of sovereign States. 

When, in the year 1853, the Government of 
Piedmont determined to correct the ecclesias- 
tical abuses which had become unendurable, 
and suppress the convents, except such as 
were used for schools and hospitals, and to 
pass a law making a more equitable distribu- 
tion of the revenues of the Church among the 
clergy. Pope Pius IX, on the 22d of January, 

1854, issued the following Allocution, which 
10 



146 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

was translated and published in the New York 
Freeman s yotmial, the leading Catholic paper 
published in the United States, and copied 
from that by Dr. M'Clintock, in his "Temporal 
Power of the Pope," pp. 122, 123, 124, which 
reads as follows : 

"Venerable Brethren, — You well re- 
member, venerable brethren, with how great 
affliction of soul we have often lamented to 
you from this place the very great mischiefs 
with which the Catholic Church, in the sub- 
Alpine kingdom, has for many years been un- 
scrupulously harassed and afflicted. Assur- 
edly, w^e have left undone nothing that anxiety, 
affection, and long-suffering could suggest, in 
order that, in virtue of our apostolic office, we 
might succeed in rem.edying evils so great, ear- 
nestly hoping that we might at length have it in 
our power to lay before you some intelligence 
alike calculated to allay your grief and soften 
our affliction. But all our efforts have been 
fruitless ; neither our reiterated expostulations, 
through our Cardinal Secretary of State, nor 
the anxious endeavors we have made through 
another Cardinal, our Plenipotentiary, nor even 
our familiar epistles to our most dear son in 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX. I47 

Christ, the illustrious King of Sardinia, have 
availed any thing. It is a matter of universal 
notoriety how that government, by several of 
its acts and decrees, to the heart-felt sorrow 
and indignation of all good persons, and in 
open contravention of the most solemn cove- 
nants entered into v/ith this apostolic see, has 
dared to persecute every day, more and more, 
the consecrated ministers of religion, the holy 
bishops, and religious communities ; violating 
the immunities of the Church, despoiling her 
of her liberty and her venerable rights, forcibly 
usurping her possession, and inflicting the most 
unheard-of injuries upon the Church, and upon 
our supreme authority and that of the holy see, 
and at the same time contemning and despis- 
ing it. Lastly, as you well know, a law has 
been proposed which is contrary to all natural, 
Divine, and social rights ; entirely opposed to 
the welfare of society, as it favors the perni- 
cious and fatal errors of socialism and com- 
munism. By this law it is proposed, among 
other things, to destroy entirely almost all the 
religious communities of both sexes, collegiate 
churches, and simple benefices, even those 
which possess right of patronage, and deliver 



148 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

their goods and revenues to the arbitrary ad- 
ministration of the civil power. The same 
measure gives authority to the lay power to 
prescribe its own conditions to the religious 
communities which may escape from the gen- 
eral destruction. 

''Words can not express the sorrow which 
fills our heart at witnessing the incredible and 
criminal acts which have been and are daily 
committed against the Church and her ancient 
rights, and the supreme and inviolable author- 
ity of the holy see, in that very kingdom in 
which are to be found so many fervent Cath- 
olics, and whose sovereigns have ever given an 
example of piety, religion, and the greatest re- 
spect for the Chair of the blessed Peter and 
his successors. But matters having now come 
to such a pass, it is not enough to deplore the 
wrongs done to the Church, but it is our duty 
to use every effort to remedy this evil accord- 
ing to the duty of our charge, and, therefore, 
we again raise our voice, with apostolic free- 
dom, in this solemn assembly, and we reject 
and condemn not only all and each of the de- 
crees of that government hurtful to the rights 
and authority of religion, of the Church, and 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX. 1 49 

of the holy see, but likewise the law lately pro- 
posed. We declare all these acts to be abso- 
lutely null and void. 

"Moreover, we seriously warn all those in 
whose name, by whose order or exertions 
these decrees have been published, as well as 
all who may sanction, approve, or favor, in any 
way whatsoever, the law lately proposed, to 
consider in their hearts the penalties and cen- 
sures contained in the apostolic constitutions, 
the canons of holy councils, and especially 
in the canons of the holy Council of Trent, 
against spoliators and profaners of holy things, 
against the violators of the liberty of the 
Church and the holy see, and the usurpers of 
their rights. Would to God that the authors 
of these evils, moved and touched by our 
words and warnings, would determine at last 
to desist from their daring attack against 
ecclesiastical liberties and immunities, and 
would hasten to repair the wrongs done to 
the Church, that thus our paternal heart might 
be spared the painful necessity of turning 
against them the weapons committed by God 
to our sacred ministry. In order that the 
Catholic world may know what we have done 



I 5 O POLITICAL R OMANISM, 

to protect the cause of the Church in the 
kingdom of Sardinia, and that the conduct of 
that Government may be well known, we have 
published a special statement of the affair, 
and we have ordered that a copy be presented 
to each of you. 

'' Before concluding we can not refrain, ven- 
erable brethren, from bestowing our well-mer- 
ited praises on the archbishops and bishops of 
the sub- Alpine kingdom, who, mindful of their 
exalted dignity and charge, have fulfilled all 
our desires, and have never ceased to oppose 
themselves as a strong wall for the house of 
Israel, defending it, by their words and writ- 
ings, with great courage and admirable con- 
stancy, and energetically upholding the cause 
of God and of his holy Church, and from our 
very heart we congratulate all these distin- 
guished laymen of that kingdom, who have 
displayed their truly Catholic sentiments and 
firm attachment to the holy see, by openly 
and publicly defending, in word and writing, 
the sacred rights of the Church. 

" And you, venerable brethren, who are called 
to share in our solicitude, we invite you to join 
with us in addressing arduous and fervent pray- 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX, 1 5 I 

ers to God, that, under the all-powerful pro- 
tection of the immaculate Virgin Mary, we 
may obtain his heavenly aid in our cares 
and efforts, and that by his almighty power 
he may protect the cause of his holy Church, 
and recall the erring to the path of truth and 
justice." 

Here Pius IX solemnly declares the acts of 
an independent foreign power " null and void !'* 
Now we ask, what right had he to do this ? 
The only answer that can be given is, that as 
Pope, he has an indirect temporal supremacy 
over the nations of the earth, and that he has 
the right to exercise that supremacy when the 
good of the Church demands it! This is the 
only answer any Catholic can give in justifica- 
tion of this arrogant assumption on the part 
of the Roman Pontiff, in interfering in the in- 
ternal affairs of a foreign kingdom. This act 
of pontifical arrogance on the part of the reign- 
ing Pontiff shows clearly that he claims the 
right, as supreme ruler over Christendom, to 
'*set aside and make void" any law of any 
government which in his judgment may in- 
fringe the rights, liberties, and immunities of 
the Church. 



152 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

But this is not all. Pius IX, in this Allo- 
cution, endeavors to stir up a spirit of insub- 
ordination, if not rebellion, among the subjects 
of the King of Sardinia. He says : 

"Moreover, we seriously warn all those in 
whose name, by whose order or exertions these 
decrees have been published, as well as all who 
may sanction, approve, or favor in any way 
whatsoever the law lately proposed, to con- 
sider in their hearts the penalties and censures 
contained in the apostolic constitutions, the 
canons of holy councils, and especially in the 
canons of the holy Council of Trent, against 
spoliators and profaners of holy things, against 
the violators of the liberty of the Church and 
the holy see, and the usurpers of their rights." 

Now what is this but an attempt, by the ter- 
rors of excommunication, to stir up the subjects 
of the King to rebellion against his authority, 
by refusing to carry into effect the laws of his 
Government } 

But the Pope goes further still, and gives the 
King full warning that there are other ''pains 
and penalties" awaiting him, if the "paternal 
admonitions" of "the Holy Father" fail to pro- 
duce the desired effect. He says : 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX. 1 53 

'* Would to God that the authors of these 
great evils, moved and touched by our words 
and warnings, would determine at last to de- 
sist from their daring attacks against ecclesi- 
astical liberties and immunities, and would 
hasten to repair the wrongs done to the 
Church, that thus our paternal heart might 
be spared the painful necessity of turning 
against them the weapons committed by God 
to our sacred ministry." 

Here is a plain threat of excommunication, 
and we have seen by the decree of the Fourth 
Lateran Council, that if an excommunicated 
sovereign remains impenitent for one year, the 
Pope must proceed to depose him, and name 
a successor, or expose his territories to con- 
quest by Christian princes. The only reason 
Pius IX did not proceed to these extreme 
measures was a conscious inability to carry 
them out, as we shall see in the sequel. But 
this shows that the animus of the Papacy is 
unchanged, and that if it had the power it 
would dethrone kings to-day, just as it did in 
the Middle Ages. 

Two years ago, June 22, 1868, Pius IX is- 



154 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

sued an Allocution, condemning the Constitu- 
tion of Austria. In it he says : 

"By our apostolic authority we reject and 
condemn the above-mentioned [new Aus- 
trian] laws in general, and in particular all 
that has been ordered, done, or enacted in 
these and in other things against the rights of 
the Church by the Austrian Government or 
its subordinates ; by the same authority we 
declare these laws and their consequences to 
have been, and to be for the future, null and 
void — mUliiisqtie roboris ftcisse ac foi^e. We 
exhort and adjure their authors, especially 
those who call themselves Catholics, and all 
who have dared to propose, to accept, to ap- 
prove, and to execute them, to remember the 
censures and spiritual penalties incurred, ipso 
facto, according to the apostolical constitutions 
and decrees of Ecumenical Councils, by those 
who violate the rights of the Church." (See 
Janus, pp. 23, 24.) 

Here Pius IX claims the right to set aside 
and declare " null and void " the laws of an in- 
dependent kingdom, " by our apostolic author- 
ity !" This right, he claims, is conferred by his 
apostolic office, and hence he as Pope, in vir- 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX, 1 5 5 

tue of his supreme authority over the princes 
and governments of the earth, has power to 
make " null and void " all laws contravening 
the rights, liberties, or immunities of the 
Church. This is as complete an assertion 
of supreme temporal power as was ever put 
forth by Gregory VII or Innocent III. On 
this passage from this Allocution Janus re- 
marks : 

*' By this sentence the whole legislature and 
executive of Austria is placed under ban, with 
the Emperor Francis Joseph at its head, and 
the Austrians may be thankful that the whole 
territories of the empire are not placed under 
interdict, according to the earlier precedents 
put in practice the last time against Venice, 
(1606.) 

"Pius IX condemns the Austrian Constitu- 
tion for making Catholics bury the bodies of 
heretics in their cemeteries where they have 
none of their own, and he considers it ' abom- 
inable' {abominabilis)y because it allows Prot- 
estants and Jews to erect educational institu- 
tions. He seems to have quite forgotten that 
similar laws long prevailed elsewhere without 
opposition from Rome. 



156 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

" If the will of the Civilta [the organ of the 
Pope] is accomplished, the bishops will sol- 
emnly condemn, by implication, next Decem- 
ber, the constitutions of the countries they live 
in, and the laws which they, or many of them, 
have sworn to observe, and will bind themselves 
to use all their efforts for the abolition of those 
laws and the overthrow of the constitutions. 
This will not, of course, be so openly stated ; 
the Civilta and its allies will say, what has 
often been said since 1864, that the Church 
must observe for a time a prudent economy, 
and must so far take account of circumstances 
and accomplished facts, as, without any modi- 
fication of her real principles, to pay a cer- 
tain external deference to them. The bishops 
do well to endure the lesser evil as long as 
open resistance would lead to worse conse- 
quences, and prejudice the interests of the 
Church. But this submission, or rather silence 
and endurance, is only provisional, and simply 
means that the lesser evil must be chosen in 
preference to a contest wdth no present pros- 
pect of success. 

"As soon as the situation changes, and there 
is hope of contending successfully against free 



k 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX, 1 5 7 

laws, the attitude of the bishops and clergy 
changes too. Then, as the Court of Rome 
and the Jesuits teach, every oath taken to a 
constitution in general, or to particular laws, 
loses its force. The oft-quoted saying of the 
apostle, that we must obey God rather than 
man, means, in the Jesuit gloss, that we must 
obey the Pope as God's representative on earth, 
and the infallible interpreter of his will, rather 
than any civil authority or laws. Therefore, 
Innocent X, in his bull of 20th November, 
1648, ^ Zelus domiis Deil which condemns the 
peace of Westphalia ' as null and void, and of no 
effect or authority for past, present, or future,' 
expressly adds, that no one, though he had 
sworn to observe the peace, is bound to keep 
his oath. It was chiefly those conditions of 
the Westphalian Peace which secured to Prot- 
estants the free exercise of their religion, and 
admission to civil offices that filled the Pope, 
as he said, with profound grief {cmn ijitimo 
doloris sensu). And this sentence was adhered 
to, for in 1789 Pius VI declared that the 
Church had never admitted the Westphalian 
Peace. ^ Pacem Westphalicam Ecclesia mm- 
qicam probavit! Thus again, in 1805, Pius 



158 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

VII, in writing to his nuncio at Venice, up- 
holds the punishments imposed by Innocent 
III for heresy, namely, confiscation of property 
for private persons, and the relaxation of all 
obligations of tribute and subjection to heret- 
ical princes ; and he only regrets that we are 
fallen on such evil days, and the bride of Christ 
is so humbled, that it is neither possible to carry 
out, nor of any avail to recall, these holy max- 
ims, and she can not exercise a righteous sever- 
ity against the enemies of the feith. 

'' These * holy maxims ' then, are allowed for 
awhile to lie dormant, though, according to the 
Jesuit plan of the campaign, they are to be 
raised at the approaching Council to the dig- 
nity of irreversible dogmas through the asser- 
tion of the Papal infallibility. Better times 
must be waited for, when the Church [that is, 
the Court of Rome] shall be raised once more 
from the dust, and seated on the throne of her 
universal, w^orld-wide, spiritual sovereignty." 
(Janus, pp. 24 to 27.) Thus speaks the author 
of "Janus," one of the most learned and acute 
Roman Catholic writers and scholars of Eu- 
rope. He belongs to the liberal wing of the 
Roman Catholic Church, and understands 



ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX. 1 59 

fully the programme laid out by the dominant 
party in that Church to regain that supremacy 
over the nations of the earth which the Popes 
once exercised, and which they still claim as 
inherent in their office as the vicars of Jesus 
Christ. 



l60 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 



CHAPTER X. 

MODERN ROMANIST DIVINES AND JOURNALS. 

THE doctrines and spirit of Pius IX on 
the rights and powers of the Church are 
faithfully reflected in nearly all the Roman 
Catholic periodicals, and nearly all the great 
prelates of the Church. This is so generally 
the case, that for a Roman Catholic journal or 
prelate to express sentiments different, is to at 
once create grave suspicion, in the minds of 
all true Catholics, of the soundness of his 
CathoUcity. Gallicanism was never so detested 
and denounced in the Roman Catholic Church 
as it is to-day. We have seen, in Chapters H 
and HI, the extreme ultramontane views of Dr. 
O. A. Brownson, advocated in his Review, in 
which he not only most bitterly denounces 
Gallicanism, but also boldly advocates the su- 
preme temporal power of the Pope, and shows 
that this is a logical deduction from the faith 



DIVINES AND JO URNALS, 1 6 1 

of the Church. Hence he boldly advocates 
the right of the Pope to depose temporal sov- 
ereigns. The position taken by Dr. Brownson 
is the doctrine held by every advocate of the 
infallibility of the Pope. To show that I am 
not misrepresenting the Romish Church on 
this question, I will quote from a letter written 
by two eminent American prelates, Archbishop 
Kenrick of St. Louis, and Purcell of Cincin- 
nati, published in the Gazette de France, and 
translated and published in the New York 
Freeman s journal and Catholic Register of 
May 21, 1870. As this is all Roman Catholic 
authority, of course there can be no objection 
raised to it by Romanists. These learned 
prelates say: 

"The American prelates have a reason 
altogether special for hesitating in regard to 
this question of Papal infallibility. For, on 
one hand, neither Catholics nor Protestants, 
in our country, will admit that Popes have the 
right of deposing sovereigns, of releasing sub- 
jects from their oath of fidelity, and of trans- 
ferring, at their will, a kingdom from one prince 
to another. Our Irish, who are the mass, as 

the support of the Catholic Church in the 

II 



1 62 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

United States, will have difficulty in agreeing 
that Pope Adrian IV, who was an Englishman, 
was infallible in giving Ireland to Henry II, 
King of England. On the other hand, bulls 
of Popes on this subject are so clear, and so 
positive, that defenders of Papal infallibility, 
in general, think themselves obliged to admit 
the temporal sovereignty of the Pope over the 
universe. Adrian IV says, in particular : Ad 
cujus {Romance Ecclesice) jus earn insulaniy alias- 
que oiwieSy qicce docttinenta fidei cepissent, perti- 
nere nernine dubium esset. It is remarkable 
that the modern authors, who talk so loudly 
of the privilege of Pontifical infallibility, keep 
at present so profound a silence in regard to 
that other privilege, that their predecessors 
esteemed as important, and as well proved as 
the former. Till now, it has been permitted 
us to say that the Church Catholic has nothing 
to do with these bargains, and is not responsi- 
ble for what the Popes have done or may do. 
But if these decisions were to become articles 
of faith, the Archbishop of Baltimore would 
find himself much embarrassed, as well as all 
the rest of us, as has happened, even recently, 
in regard to freedom of worship." 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS. 163 

Here we have the direct testimony of two of 
the most eminent American prelates of the 
Church of Rome, that the Papal infallibility 
carries along with it necessarily the temporal 
supremacy of the Pope, and that this is the 
doctrine of the advocates of infallibility them- 
selves, though they for the present maintain a 
prudent silence on the temporal rights and 
prerogatives of the Pope. But still their true 
doctrine may be discovered from their bitter 
denunciations of Gallicanism and their exalta- 
tion of the rights of the sovereign Pontiff. 

These prelates here expressly declare that, 
by the proclamation of the dogma of Papal in- 
fallibility, "these decisions" of the Popes have 
" become articles of faith !" Thus we see that 
what was only a " logical deduction from the 
faith of the Church " before, has now become a 
part of the faith, and every one of the arrogant 
Papal bulls, dethroning emperors, kings, and 
princes, which we have quoted, must now be 
received by the whole Roman Catholic Church 
as articles of faith — Archbishops Kenrick and 
Purcell being judges. This places the ques- 
tion of Papal infallibility in a new light before 
the American people. It must not be forgot- 



1 64 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

ten that these two eminent American Roman- 
ist prelates have unconditionally and unreserv- 
edly accepted the dogma of the infallibility of 
the Pope, and, according to their own state- 
ment, they hold the political supremacy of the 
Pope as an '^article of faith!" Let this be, 
proclaimed from every housetop in the land, 
until the American people are thoroughly 
aroused to the importance of this question. 
The Civil ta Cattolica^ published in Rome, 
under the immediate eye of the Pope, and 
must therefore be regarded as his organ, as 
quoted by Dr. M'Clintock, on "The Temporal 
Power of the Pope," pp. 129, 130, says: 

** What, then, are the limits of the Church's 
means 1 There are none except the limits of 
human power and of the Divine assistance 
by which the Church is comforted. As the 
Church commands the spiritual part of man 
directly, she therefore commands the whole 
man, and all that depends on man ; for it is 
the property of man to live according to the 
spirit, according to reason." On this passage 
Dr. M'Clintock justly remarks in a foot-note: 
"This proposition sums up the entire claim 
of the Church, both as to temporal and 



DIVINES AND JOURNAIS, 1 65 

spiritual supremacy. The absolute direction of 
the soul logically and necessarily carries with 
it, as the greater the less, the direction also of 
the body." This is the uniform reasoning of 
Roman Catholics on this question. The eccle- 
siastical power with them is the greater, and 
must therefore necessarily control the civil 
power, which is the less. The Civilta con- 
tinues : " The truth is that the only power 
dreaded by the demagogues and the ungodly 
is that very Church which they unite in at- 
tacking, calling it ^clerical party,' ^Jesuitism/ 
* theologism,' or what not. And they are 
right in that fear. To-day, as in all times, 
the Church commands the spiritual part of 
man — lit., the spirits — and in ruling over the 
spirit she rules the body, rules over riches, 
over sciences, over affections, over interests, 
over associations — rules, in fine, over mon- 
archs, and their ministers. . . . Petty poli- 
ticians may conclude that the Church has lost 
her power, because she does not enlist artil- 
lery, cavalry, and infantry ; but the truth is, 
that the artillery, cavalry, and infantry of the 
CathoUcs are in the hands of the Church, inas- 
much as in her hands are the mind, the reason, 



1 66 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

and the power of every true Catholic/' (Ibid., 
pp. 131, 132.) 

The claim here set up, of complete authority 
over the whole man, by means of bringing the 
mind and conscience under the dominion of the 
Church, we know is too true by the practical 
workings of Roman Catholicism in this coun- 
try. The whole force of the Roman Catholic 
Church in the United States is now arrayed, 
through the power the priests exercise over 
their people, against our Common-School sys- 
tem, and they have the same power to turn 
the whole political force of their Church 
against any other civil institution of our 
country, whenever they feel disposed so to do. 
This complete control of the Church over the 
entire man, by means of his spiritual part"J is 
the great danger to free institutions from Ro- 
man Catholicism, the fountain and support of 
all despotism, civil and ecclesiastical. The 
Civilta claims for the Church the unlimited 
right to use force or coercion to secure obedi- 
ence to her mandates. It says : 

" Our second question was. To what ex- 
tent may the Church make use of severity ? 
Here, also, we answer, that the aim, of itself, 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS. 1 67 

does not impose any limits. For as the spir- 
itual good is the greatest of all goods, there- 
fore every thing allowed for other smaller goods 
must be allowed for the greatest. And as it 
is a universal law of punishment that the in- 
fliction be not greater than necessary, nor less 
than sufficient, the spiritual authority must be 
entitled, a fortiori, to every thing conceded to 
the temporal power. 

"The conclusion is, therefore, that there are 
no limits to the exercise of the coercive power 
of the Church, either in view of her means or 
of her aim.'* 

Here all the iniquities of the Inquisition, in 
the employment of force and torture, to sup- 
press heresy, and extend the power of the 
Pope, are unblushingly justified. Remember 
the organ of Pope Pius IX teaches that the 
only limit of the coercive power of the Church 
is the limit of her ability to employ force. The 
reason she does not employ force now as for- 
merly, for the suppression of heresy, is, she 
can not make the civil power the executioner 
of her bloody mandates as she could in her 
palmy days. She does not lack the spirit 
and disposition to persecute, but she lacks the 



1 68 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

ability ; and she is looking and longing for the 
return of the time when she may " recall those 
holy maxims " of force and blood ! 

Gallicanism is denounced by all the leading 
writers and journals of the Roman Catholic 
Church as a " Royal Theology," " Court Re- 
ligion," etc. Now, remember the first of the 
four Galilean articles, which just now meet 
such a universal and bitter denunciation by 
all the leading Papal writers and journals, de- 
clares : " That the Popes have no power front 
God to interposey directly or indirectly ^ i7i the 
temporal concerns of princes or of sovereign 
States!' 

Archbishop Manning, in a Pastoral Letter to 
the clergy of Westminster, issued on the eve of 
the present Council, and with special reference 
to the question of Papal infallibility, and also 
published in the New York Freeman s your- 
nal and Catholic Register, from which I quote, 
January 8, 1870 — says: 

"In the Pastoral of 1867 I was recalling to 
your minds the history of Gallicanism, and 
my words were these : * The boldness or the 
unconsciousness with which Gallicanism is 
sometimes put forward as an opinion, which 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS. 1^9 

Catholics are free to hold without blame, and 
as a basis on which Churches are to unite un- 
der the shelter of Bossuet, and as a standard 
of Catholic moderation, in rebuke of ultramon- 
tane excesses, makes it seasonable to tell its his- 
tory. Gallicanism is no more than a transient 
and modern opinion which arose in France, 
without warrant or antecedents, in the ancient 
theological schools of the French Church; a royal 
theology, as suddenly developed and as paren- 
thetical as the Thirty-nine Articles, affirmed only 
by a small number of the numerous episcopate 
of France, indignantly rejected by many of them ; 
condemned in succession by three Pontiffs; de-^ 
dared by the universities of Louvain and Douai 
to be erroneous; retracted by the bishops of 
France; condemned by Spain, Hungary, and 
other countries, and condemned over again in 
the bull 'Auctorem Fidei! Whether I am 
justified in using these words the next chap- 
ter will show. 

" Now, in the following chapter I will give 
the outline of the history of the doctrine of 
the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff; and, 
in doing so, sufficient evidence will, I hope, 



170 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

appear by the way to justify the assertions of 
the above quotation. 

" What will appear may be thus stated : 

" I. That Gallicanism has no warrant in the 
doctrinal practice or tradition of the Church, 
either in France or at large, in the thousand 
years preceding the Council of Constance. 

^^2. That the first traces of Gallicanism are 
to be found about the time of that Council. 

" 3. That after the Council of Constance they 
were rapidly and almost altogether effaced from 
the theology of the Church in France until their 
revival in 1682. 

"4. That the articles of 1682 were conceived 
by Jansenists, and carried through by political 
and oppressive means, contrary to the sense of 
the Church of France. 

" 5. That the theological faculties of the Sor- 
bonne and of France generally, nobly resisted 
and refused to teach them." 

In chapter iii, of the same Pastoral Let- 
ter of Archbishop Manning, in the Freeman s 
yotirnaly of January 2 2d, when summing up 
the reasons in favor of the proclamation of the 
dogma of Papal infallibility, he gives the fif- 
teenth and last reason thus : 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS. I /I 

" Because the full and final declaration of the 
Divine authority of the head of the Church is 
needed to exclude from the minds of pastors 
and faithful the political i7ifluences which have 
generated Gallicanism, hnperialism, Regalism, 
and Nationalism, the perennial sources of error, 
contention, and schism/' 

The italics in these quotations are my own. 

In this last quotation from Archbishop Man- 
ning, the temporal supremacy of the Pope, as 
a result of his personal^ infallibility, stands out 
fully confessed. The dogma of the personal 
infallibility of the Pope is necessary " to ex- 
clude from the minds of pastors and faithftd 
the political influences which have generated 
Gallicanism;' etc. Now what are "the polit- 
ical influences which have generated Gallican- 
ism," etc..^ Every one knows that Gallicanism 
has its foundation in a rejection of the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope, and that polit- 
ical GalUcanism is embraced in the first of 
the four articles, which denies both the direct 
and indirect temporal supremacy of the Pope. 
Now, we are told by the advocates of Papal 
infallibility that this decision of the fullness 
'* of the Divine authority of the head of the 



172 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

Church is needed to exclude from the minds 
of pastors and faithful " this political Gallican- 
ism. Thus the Pope, by the proclamation of 
the dogma of infallibility, is set up over the 
kings, emperors, princes, and rulers of the civil 
governments of the earth, and the faithful of 
every order are to bow down once more and 
humbly kiss the feet of ^^ His Holiness I' and 
kings and emperors must receive their crowns 
from his hands, and presidents must have their 
elections confirmed by his authority. Gallican- 
ism. Imperialism, Regalism, and Nationalism 
are all to be condemned and abolished ; and, 
to prevent any more errors, contentions, or 
schisms, mankind are to be brought under 
one universal, absolute, infallible sovereign, 
the Pope, and all, both great and small, high 
and low, rich and poor, bond and free, are to 
receive the law from his infallible mouth, and 
tremble at his nod. Then shall millennial 
glory burst forth in its brightest efiulgence, 
and all the earth for a thousand years bow to 
the scepter of the Pope ! Such is the vision 
of glory which is traced in outline before the 
minds of the worshipers of "the Man of Sin,'' 
and if these results are not reached it will not 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS. 173 

be for want of zeal, energy, and effort upon 
their part, but simply because mankind, in 
their blindness, will prefer the misery of the 
light of science, human progress, and civil 
and religious liberty, to the happiness of the 
barbarism of the Middle Ages, and the civil 
and ecclesiastical despotism of the Roman 
Pontiff, which, like the ponderous wheels of 
Juggernaut, crushes every thing that comes 
under its power. 

In closing up his Pastoral, Archbishop Man- 
ning, speaking of the future of the civil gov- 
ernments of Christendom, sees no hope for 
them, but in submission to the Pope, which 
he, of course, presents in the least objection- 
able manner possible, so as not to give offense 
to the civil power; but still "union with the 
Church," which, with all '' tnie Catholics" 
means submission of the civil power to the 
Pope, is the only remedy which he can pos- 
sibly' see for the benighted nations of Prot- 
estant Christendom ! The only hope for En- 
gland "for some clearing in the dark sky, 
which for the last three hundred years has 
lowered upon it," is " union with the Church," 



I 



174 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

that is, submission to the Pope, such as King 
John made to Pope Innocent III. 

In answering the objections to the procla- 
mation of the dogma of infallibility, arising 
from the political effects it would have upon the 
nations of Christendom, the Archbishop re- 
marks : 

" / ca7i hardly persuade myself to believe that 
the University of Munich does not know that the 
relations between tJie Pope^ even supposed to be 
infallible^ and the civil powers^ have been long 
since precisely defined in the same acts which 
defined the relations between the Churchy known 
to be infallible^ and the civil authority. Twelve 
Synods or Cotmcils, two of them Ecumenical^ 
have long ago laid down these relations of the 
spiritual and civil powers. If the Pope were 
declared infallible to-7norrow, it would in no 
way ajfect these relations!' (See Freemans 
yourjialy January 29, 1870.) 

The General Council here referred to, as hav- 
ing fixed "the relations between the spiritual 
and civil powers," was the Fourth Lateran, un- 
der Innocent III, for the decree of which, fixing 
the ''relations between the spiritual and civil 
powers," see Chapter VI ; and the First Coun- 



DIVINES AND JOURNALS, 1 75 

cil of Lyons, under Innocent IV, for the ac- 
tion of which, see Chapter VII. Here we see 
the modern infaUiblists fully and unreservedly 
indorse the deposing power of the Pope as 
taught by these two Ecumenical Councils, 
and accept their action as final in regard to 
the relation that exists between the Roman 
Pontiff and the civil governments of Chris- 
tendom. 



176 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 



CHAPTER XL 

FIRST CONSTITUTION CONCERNING THE 
CHURCH. 

THE supreme temporal power of the Pope 
is fully set forth in the *' Constitution 
concerning the Church/' passed by the Coun- 
cil of the Vatican, July 18, 1870. In Chap- 
ter HI, of that Constitution, ''On the Power 
and nature of the Primacy of the Roman 
Pontiff," it is declared : " Wherefore, supported 
by the clear testimonies of the Sacred Script- 
ures, and adhering to the formal and perspicuous 
decrees, both of our predecessors, the Roman 
Pontiffs, and the General Councils, we renew 
the definition of the Ecumenical Council of 
Florence, by which all the faithful in Christ are 
bound to believe that the Holy Apostolic See, 
and the Roman Pontiff, possesses the primacy 
over the entire world, and that the Roman Pon- 
tiff himself is the successor of blessed Peter, the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH. 1 77 

Prince of the Apostles, and that he is the true 
Vicar of Christ, the Head of the whole Church, 
and the father and teacher of all Christians ; 
and that to him, in blessed Peter, has been 
delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ, the full 
power to feed, to rule, and to govern the Uni- 
versal Church, as is also contained in the acts 
of the Ecumenical Councils, and the Sacred 
Canons." 

Here the constitutions and decrees of all 
former Popes and Councils, concerning the 
power and authority of the Roman Pontiff to 
"rule and to govern the Universal Church," is 
fully and formally renewed. This is a full and 
formal renewal of the Extravagant of Boniface 
VHI, and all other Papal bulls concerning the 
temporal power of the Pope, and also a renewal 
of the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council, 
which lays down the law by which the Pope is 
to proceed in dethroning heretical and infidel 
sovereigns, and appointing their successors. 
But this Constitution continues : 

''We, therefore, teach and declare that the 
Roman Church, by the institution of the Lord, 
possesses the pre-eminence of ordinary power 
over all other Churches ; and that this power 

12 



178 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

of the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which 
is truly Episcopal, is immediate ; that to this 
(power of jurisdiction) the pastors and faith- 
ful, both individually, as well as collectively, 
of whatever rite and dignity they may be, are 
bound by the duty of hierarchical subordina- 
tion, and true obedience, not only in matters 
which belong to faith and morals, but also in 
those things which appertain to the discipline 
and the government of the Church, diffused 
over the entire world ; so that, the unity of 
communion, and profession of the same faith 
with the Roman Pontiff being preserved, the 
Church of Christ is one flock under one su- 
preme pastor. 

" This is the doctrine of Catholic truth, from 
which no one can deviate without loss of faith 
and salvation 

"And since the Roman Pontiff, by Divine 
right of the Apostolic Primacy, presides over 
the Universal Church, we also teach and de- 
clare that he is the supreme judge of the faith- 
ful, and that recourse may be had to his judg- 
ment in all cases that refer to an ecclesias- 
tical examination; but that the judgment of 
the Apostolic See, than which there is no 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH. 1 79 

greater authority, must not be treated again, by 
any one, and that it is not lawful for any one 
to judge its judgment. Therefore, they wander 
from the straight path of truth who affirm that 
it is lawful to appeal from the judgments of the 
Roman Pontiffs to an Ecumenical Council, as 
if to an authority superior to the Roman 
Pontiff. 

"If, therefore, any^ one shall say, that the 
Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspec- 
tion or direction, but that he has not the 
full and supreme power of jurisdiction over 
the universal Church, not only in matters 
w^hich belong to faith and morals, but also in 
those which pertain to the discipline and gov- 
ernment of the Church, diffused throughout 
the entire world ; or that he only has the prin- 
cipal parts, but not the whole plenitude of this 
supreme power ; or that this power of his is 
not ordinary and immediate, whether over all 
the Churches, or each of them, whether over 
all the pastors and faithful, and each of them ; 
let him be anathema.'' 

Heretofore we have been told the Pope is 
only infallible when speaking ex cathedra to 
the whole Church, and when speaking of faith 



l80 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

and morals. But this "Constitution of the 
Church" places questions of "discipline and 
government" on an equality with those of 
"doctrine and morals," and the judgments of 
the Roman Pontiffs are just as irreformable, 
and consequently just as infallible on ques- 
tions of "discipline and government," as on 
questions of "faith and morals." Under the 
head of questions of "discipline and govern- 
ment," comes up every question that can arise 
between the Roman Pontiff and any civil 
ruler ; for there is no question which can pos- 
sibly arise between Popes and civil rulers, 
affecting the rights, privileges, and jurisdiction 
of the Church, but is classified as an " ecclesi- 
astical" question, and may be referred to the 
Pope, as a question requiring " an ecclesiastical 
examination." When such an examination is 
had, and the decision of the Pope is once 
reached, it matters not what that decision is, 
whether it excommunicates or dethrones a 
sovereign, or overturns a State, none can pass 
upon his judgment, "without loss of faith 
and salvation," and incurring the "greater 
anathema." Such is the doctrine of the Church 
of Rome, solemnly put forth in the Constitu- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, l8l 

tion of the Church which proclaims the per- 
sonal infallibility of the Pope. Should any 
question arise in this country between the 
Church of Rome and the civil power, it would 
be an "ecclesiastical question," and one which 
the Pope would feel called upon to decide, and 
when his decision was proclaimed, every Ro- 
man Catholic in the United States would be 
bound to take sides with the Pope against the 
Government, under pain of "loss of faith and 
salvation." This is no exaggeration, but a 
plain statement of the facts of the case. Thus 
we see that, by this Constitution, sanctioned 
by the Council, and subscribed to by every 
Romish Bishop in the United States, the Pope 
has the power, whenever he feels like exercis- 
ing it, of raising insurrection and rebellion 
against the Government. And should the time 
ever come, when the Church of Rome fancies 
herself prepared for the struggle, trouble will 
as certainly arise from this quarter, as that 
causes produce their necessary effects. 

That I have not misrepresented the facts in 
regard to the powers this Constitution confers 
upon the Pope, is fully proven by the Encyc- 
lical Letter of Pope Pius IX, issued Novem- 



1 82 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

ber I, 1870, on the occupation of Rome by the 
King of Italy. After giving a lengthy review 
of the contest between the Pope and the King 
of Italy, for the last twenty years, he says : 

"We declare anew before you, venerable 
brethren, with all possible solemnity, that it is 
our intention, resolution, and will, to retain in 
their integrity, intact and inviolable, all the 
dominions and rights of this Holy See, and 
so to transmit them to our successors ; that 
all usurpation of these rights, whether of a 
recent or of an earlier date, is unjust, violent, 
null and void ; and that all the acts of the 
rebels and invaders, already accomplished, or 
still to be accomplished, with the view of con- 
firming, in whatever manner, this usurpation, 
are by us from this moment condemned, an- 
nulled, quashed, and abrogated 

*' For, as our predecessor, Pius VII, said : 
* To do violence to this sovereign empire of 
the apostolic see, to separate the temporal from 
the spiritual, to disjoin, to tear asunder, and 
to cut up by the roots the offices of pastor 
and of prince, is nothing else but to desire to 
ruin and destroy the work of God ; nothing 
else but to labor for the greatest injury to 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, 1 83 

religion ; is nothing else but to deprive it of a 
most efficacious bulwark, so that the supreme 
ruler, pastor, and vicar of God may not have 
it in his power to give to Catholics who, scat- 
tered all over the world, ask of him aid and 
succor, that help which they claim from his 
spiritual power, and which no one may hinder ! 
" But since our admonitions, expostulations, 
and protests have been without effect, by the 
authority of Almighty God, of the holy apos- 
tles Peter and Paul, arid by our own we de- 
clare to you, venerable brethren, and by you 
to the whole Church, that all those who have 
perpetrated the invasion, usurpation, and oc- 
cupation of any of the provinces of our do- 
minion, and of this our beloved city, or have 
done any of these things, of whatever dignity 
they may be, and even though they should be 
worthy of most special mention ; and in like 
manner all their agents, abettors, assistants, 
counselors, adherents, and all others, either 
obtaining the execution of those things, under 
whatever pretext or in whatever manner, or 
executing them themselves ; have incurred, ac- 
cording to the form and tenor of our letters 
apostolic, recited the 26th of March, i860, the 



1 84 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

greater excommunication, and the other cen- 
sures and ecclesiastical penalties published by 
the holy canons, apostolical constitutions, and 
the decrees of general councils, and particularly 
of the Council of Trent." (New York Free- 
imans yoiirnal, December 17, 1870.) 

That the reader may know what the " greater 
excommunication" means, we will give the 
"Anathema," which is pronounced against such 
as incur this excommunication. Here it is : 

"By the authority of God Almighty, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the un- 
defiled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness 
of our Savior, and of all celestial virtues, an- 
gels, archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, 
cherubims and seraphims, and of all the holy 
patriarchs, prophets, and of all the apostles 
and evangelists of the holy innocents, who, 
in the sight of the Holy Lamb, are found 
worthy to sing the new song of the holy 
martyrs and holy confessors, and of all holy 
virgins, and of all saints, together with the 
holy elect of God, may he, , be damned ! 

"We excommunicate and anathematize him, 
and, from the threshold of the holy Church 
of God Almig' ty, we sequester him, that he 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, 1 85 

may be tormented, despised, and be delivered 
over with Atham and Abiram, and with those 
who say unto the Lord, ^Depart from us, for 
we desire none of thy ways ;' as a fire is 
quenched with water, so let the light of him 
be put out for evermore, unless it shall repent 
him, and make satisfaction. Amen. May the 
Father who created him, curse him ! May the 
Son who suffered for us, curse him ! May the 
Holy Ghost who suffered for us in baptism, 
curse him ! May the holy cross which Christ, 
for our salvation, triumphing over his enemies, 
ascended, curse him ! May the holy and eter- 
nal Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse him ! 
May St. Michael, the advocate of the holy 
souls, curse him ! May all the angels, princi- 
palities, and powers, and all heavenly armies, 
curse him ! May the praiseworthy multitude 
of patriarchs and prophets curse him ! May 
St. John the precursor, and St. John the Bap- 
tist, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. An- 
drew, and all other of Christ's apostles, to- 
gether, curse him ! And may the rest of our 
disciples and evangelists who by their preach- 
ing converted the universe, and the holy and 
wonderful company of martyrs and confessors, 



1 86 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

who by their holy works are found pleasing to 
God Almighty ! May the holy choir of the 
holy virgins, who for the honor of Christ have 
despised the things of the world, damn him ! 
May all the saints, from the beginning of the 
world to everlasting ages, who are found to 
be beloved of God, damn him ! May he be 
damned wherever he be, whether in the house 
or in the stable, the garden or the field, or the 
highways ; or in the woods or in the waters, 
or. in the Church ! May he be cursed in liv- 
ing and in dying ! May he be cursed in eat- 
ing and in drinking, in being hungry, in being 
thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, 
and in sitting ; in living, in working, in resting^ 
and blood-letting ! May he be cursed in all 
the faculties of his body! May he be cursed 
inwardly and outwardly ! May he be cursed 
in his brains and in his vertex; in his tem- 
ples, in his eyebrows ; in his cheeks, in his 
jaw-bones ; in his nostrils, in his teeth and 
grinders ; in his lips, in his throat, in his 
shoulders, in his arms, in his fingers ! May 
he be damned in his mouth, in his breasts, in 
his heart and purtenances down to the very 
stomach ! May he be cursed in his reins and 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH. 1 8/ 

in his groins, in his thighs, in his genitals, and 
in his hips, and his knees, his legs, and feet, and 
toe-nails! May he be cursed in all his joints 
and articulation of the members ! From the 
crown of his head to the soles of his feet, may- 
there be no soundness ! May the Son of the 
living God, with all the glory of his majesty, 
curse him ! And may Heaven, with all the 
powers that move therein, rise up against him, 
and curse and damn him, unless he repent and 
make satisfaction! Amen. So be it. Be it 
so. Amen." 

This is a verbathn copy of the anathema, as 
pronounced against William Hogan, an apos- 
tate Roman Catholic priest of the city of 
Philadelphia, a few years ago, and published 
in one of the city papers. This anathema, 
blasphemous and outrageous as it is, has now 
been pronounced against the King of Italy, 
and all his subjects who have aided or abetted 
him in the patriotic work of regenerating Italy 
and establishing a liberal government, instead 
of the ejfete despotism of the Pope. 

Here we see that the Pope, though shut up 

, a prisoner in his palace, according to his own 

statement, is still mightier than the kings of 



1 88 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

the earth, for he can, ''by the authority of 
Almighty God, of the holy apostles, Peter and 
Paul," and ''by his own," "condemn, annul, 
quash, and abrogate" the statutes and laws of 
a great king ! 

But here it may be objected, "that the King 
of Italy has usurped the political rights of the 
Pope as a temporal prince, and therefore the 
Pope has the right to declare that his acts are 
not lawful, and consequently void." To this I 
reply, that the Pope does not make simply a 
solemn protest, as an earthly prince, against 
the King of Italy as a usurper of his rights as 
a civil ruler ; but, he as Pope, and " by the au- 
thority of God Almighty," as his vicar, declares 
all the acts of the King, touching the territory 
and government of the patrimony of St. Peter 
"null and void." This shows that he does 
not, as the rightful, civil ruler, whose rights 
have been invaded, make his protest ; but as 
the supreme ruler over the nations of the earth, 
in whom are centered all the rights and priv- 
ileges of universal empire, interpose to set 
aside the regulations of an inferior. 

Again, the rights and authority of the Pope, 
as a political prince and ruler over the States 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, 1 89 

of the Church, are no more explicitly taught 
than are the rights of the Pope as supreme 
ruler over all the nations and kingdoms of the 
earth, by virtue of his office as the vicar of 
God on earth, as we have already sufficiently 
demonstrated. And upon the same ground 
that he could declare the acts of the King of 
Italy "null and void," because they interfered 
with his rights as political prince and civil ruler, 
he can declare the acts of any government on 
earth "null and void," when they interfere with 
his rights as the supreme ruler over the nations ; 
just as Pius IX did in declaring the recent 
liberal Constitution of Austria "null and void." 
Take whatever view we may of the Encyclical 
of November i, 1870, it contains all the mon- 
strous and extravagant claims of political su- 
premacy over the kingdoms and the govern- 
ments of the earth, that were put forth by 
Innocent III, in the Fourth Lateran Council, 
or Boniface VIII, in his Extravagant " U^iam 
Sanctantr 

But "His Holiness," Pius IX, is not satis- 
fied with simply excommunicating and anathe- 
matizing the King of Italy; he denounces 
against him "the other censures and ecclesi- 



190 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

astical penalties published by the holy canons, 
apostolical constitutions, and the decrees of 
General Councils, and particularly of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. (Sess. XXII, c. ii, de Reform.) 
What, we ask, are " the other censures and 
ecclesiastical penalties," which are here de- 
nounced against the King of Italy ? In Chapter 
VI, you will find some of these penalties set forth 
in the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council, 
which declares that when a temporal lord is 
bound in the bonds of anathema, and fails to 
make satisfaction in the space of one year, the 
Pope is then to absolve his subjects from their 
allegiance, and expose his territories to be 
seized by good Catholics ! The Council of 
Trent also declares, Sess. XXV, chap, iii : 
" And every excommunicated person, who, after 
the lawful monitions, does not repent, shall not 
only not be received to the sacraments, and to 
communion and intercourse with the faithful ; 
but if, being bound with censures, he shall, 
with obdurate heart, remain for a year in the 
defilement thereof, he may even be proceeded 
against as suspected of heresy." 

Should the King of Italy refuse to make sat- 
isfaction to the Pope in a year, he may pro- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, 19I 

ceed, under the law of the Fourth Lateran 
Council, to deprive him of his kingdom, and 
expose his territories to be seized by good 
Catholics, or he may proceed to appoint a suc- 
cessor to the throne of Sardinia. That this is 
just v/hat is meant by this last clause is man- 
ifest from the tone of the Roman Catholic 
press and the speeches of their clergy, urging 
a '' grand crusade of the nineteenth century, to 
rescue our holy father." This *' grand crusade" 
to rescue the Pope, means a war of the Roman 
Catholic Church against the King of Italy to 
overturn his throne, and re-establish the tem- 
poral authority of the Pope over the States of 
the Church. Just at this time, the Roman 
Catholic press of the United States is pressing 
this matter upon the attention of the Roman 
Catholic youth of our country with all its force. 
Foremost in this work of stirring up strife and 
mischief to involve our Government in trouble 
with the Kingdom of Italy, as it is in every 
evil work, is the New York Freeman! s Jottrnal 
and Catholic Register, the leading Roman Cath- 
olic paper of this country, and whose columns 
are filled with the most inflammatory appeals 
to the Roman Catholic youth, urging them on 



192 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

to engage in the mad scheme of a crusade 
against the King of Italy, to rescue and restore 
the civil government of the Pope, and to pun- 
ish the Italian King. And we may yet see 
this mad scheme, at least, attempted to be en- 
forced ! 



GENERAL SUMMARY, I93 



CHAPTER XII. 

GENERAL SUMMARY. 

IN the preceding chapters we have seen that 
the supreme temporal power of the Pope 
over all the nations of the earth, by virtue of 
his supreme spiritual authority, as the successor 
of St. Peter and vicar of Christ, is the doctrine 
of the Roman Catholic Church. This doc- 
trine, we have seen, is held and proclaimed by 
the leading theologians and canonists of the 
Church — by the Popes uniformly for a thousand 
years past, in the most explicit and positive 
manner — by two of the General Councils of 
the Church, the Fourth Lateran and the First 
of Lyons, the one laying down the law by 
which the Pope should proceed in dethroning 
kings and appointing their successors, and the 
other ratifying the deposition of the Emperor 
Frederick II. We have seen a third of their 
General Councils, the Fifth Lateran, confirm- 

13 



194 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

ing the Extravagant of Boniface III, known as 
the bull " Unam Sanctaml' which says : " We 
therefore assert, define, and pronounce that it 
is necessary to salvation to believe that every 
human being is subject to the Pontiff of 
Rome." All these acts and decrees, we 
have seen, were confirmed by the Council of 
Trent, thus establishing the temporal suprem- 
acy of the Pope as the doctrine of the Church 
by the decrees oi four of their infallible Coun- 
cils. We have seen, also, that the modern in- 
falliblists are as fully committed to the tem- 
poral supremacy as they are to the personal 
infallibility of the Pope. Finally: we have 
seen that this claim to temporal supremacy is 
set forth in the " Constitution of the Church," 
proclaimed by Pius IX, and ratified by the 
Council of the Vatican, July i8, 1870, and that 
the reigning Pontiff has attempted to carry out 
this high claim in his Encyclical Letter of 
November i, 1870. The only opposition to 
this universal teaching of the Church of Rome, 
from within the Church itself, we have seen to 
be found in the teachings of the Galileans, and 
Gallicanism, we have seen, is expressly con- 
demned by the general teachings of the Church, 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 1 95 

and by five of the Roman Pontiffs, including 
Pius IX. Thus we see, the Church is irrevo- 
cably committed to the doctrine of the tempo- 
ral supremacy of the Pope over all the govern- 
ments of the earth ; and, though a prudent 
silence may be maintained by Papists on this 
question now, the claim is not abandoned, and 
can not be ; they are only holding it in abey- 
ance until such time as they think it may be 
put forth with the hope of again re-establish- 
ing that temporal supremacy which was once 
exercised by the Pope over the nations of 
Christendom. 

This doctrine of the Church of Rome, which 
it is impossible for Roman Catholics to repu- 
ate, must cause every lover of free government 
to look with suspicion and an ill-foreboding 
at the increase of Roman Catholicism in this 
country. This feeling must be increased, when 
it is known that every Roman Catholic bishop 
in the world has taken a most solemn oath of 
allegiance to the Pope as lord and sovereign. 
I know that Roman Catholics deny that this 
oath requires any thing but spiritual allegiance ; 
but there is no such provision in the oath at 
all, and this denial can be made in good faith 



196 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

only by those who deny the temporal suprem- 
acy of the Pope, and this we have seen is a 
proscribed and condemned opinion, and is not 
held anywhere by ''good Catholics." The fol- 
lowing is the bishop's oath, both in the orig- 
inal Latin and in English, both of which I 
take from Elliott on Romanism, vol. i, pp. 30 
to 32: 

" Ego N. electus ecclesise N. ab hac hora in 
antea fidelis et obediens ero B. Petro Apostolo, 
sanctaeque Romanae Ecclesias, et Domino nos- 
tro, Domino N. Papse N. suisque successoribus 
canonice intrantibus. Non ero in consilio, aut 
consensu, vel facto, ut vitam perdant, aut mem- 
brum ; seu capiantur mala captione ; aut in eos 
manus quomodolibet ingerantur; vel injuriae 
aliquae inferantur, quovis quaesito colore. Con- 
silium vero quod mihi credituri sunt, per se, 
aut nuncios suos, seu literas, ad eorum dam- 
num, me sciente, nemini pandam. Papatum 
Romanum et regalia Sancti Petri adjutor eis 
ero ad defendendum et retinendum, salvo meo 
ordine, contra omnem hominem. Legatum 
apostolicae sedis in eundo et redeundo honori- 
fice tractabo, et in suis necessitatibus adjuvabo. 
Jura, honores, privilegia, et auctoritatem sanctae 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 1 9/ 

Romanae Ecclesiae, domini nostri Papae et suc- 
cessorum praedictorum, conservare, defendere, 
augere, et promovere curabo. Neque ero in 
consilio, vel facto, seu tractatu in quibus contra 
ipsum dominum nostrum, vel eandem Romanam 
Ecclesiam aliqua sinistra vel prasjudicialia per- 
sonarum, juris, honoris, status et potestatis eo- 
rum machinentur. Et si talia a quibuscunque 
tractari vel procurari novero, impediam hoc pro 
posse, et quanto citius potero significabo eidem 
domino nostro, vel alteri per quem possit ad 
ipsius notitiam pervenire. Regulas sanctorum 
Patrum, decreta, ordinationes, seu dispositiones, 
reservationes, provisiones et mandata apostolica 
totis viribus observabo, et faciam ab aliis ob- 
servari. Haereticos, schismaticos, et rebelles 
eidem domino nostro vel successoribus praedic- 
tis pro posse persequar et impugnabo. Voca- 
tus ad synodum veniam, nisi praepeditus fuero 
canonica praepeditione. Apostolorum limina 
singulis trienniis personaliter per me ipsum 
visitabo, et domino nostro ac successoribus 
praefatis rationem reddam de toto meo pastor- 
ali officio ac de rebus omnibus ad meas Ec- 
clesiae statum, ad cleri, et populi disciplinam, 
animarum denique quae meae fidei traditae sunt, 



198 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

salutem quovis modo pertinentibus, et vicissim 
mandata apostolica humiliter recipiam et quam 
diligentissime exequar. Quod si legitimo im- 
pedimento detentus fuero prsefata omnia adim- 
plebo per certum nuncium ad hoc speciale man- 
datum habentem de gremio mei capituli, aut 
alium in dignitate ecclesiastica constitutum, seu 
alias personatum habentem ; aut, his mihi defici- 
entibus per dioecesanum sacerdotem ; et clero 
deficiente omnino per aliquem ahum presbyte- 
rum secularem vel regularem spectatae probitatis 
et religionis de supradictis omnibus plene in- 
. structum. De hujusmodi autem impedimento 
docebo per legitimas probationes ad sanctae Ro- 
manae Ecclesiae cardinalem proponentem in 
congregatione sacri concilii per supradictum 
nuncium transmittendas. Possessiones vero 
ad mensam meam pertinentes non vendam, nee 
donabo neque impignorabo, nee de novo infeu- 
dabo vel aliquo modo alienabo, etiam cum con- 
sensu capituli Ecclesiae meae, inconsulto Ro- 
mano Pontifice. Et si ad aliquam alienationem 
devenero, poenas in quadam super hoc edita 
constitutione contentas eo ipso incurrere volo. 
Sic me Deus adjuvet et haec sanctae Dei evan- 
gelia." (Deere. Greg. IX, lib. ii, tit. 24.) 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 1 99 

Translation — "I, N., elect of the Church 
of N., from henceforward will be faithful and 
obedient to St. Peter the apostle, and to the 
holy Roman Church, and to our lord, the Lord 
N., Pope N., and to his successors canonicaily 
entering. I will neither advise, consent, or do 
any thing that they may lose life or member, 
or that their persons may be seized, or hands 
in any w^ise laid upon them, or any injuries 
offered to them under any pretense whatever. 
The counsel with which they will intrust me 
by themselves, their messengers or letters, I 
will not knowingly reveal to any to their preju- 
dice, I will help them to keep and defend 
the Roman Papacy, and the regalities of St. 
Peter, saving my order, against all men. The 
legate of the apostolic see, going and coming, 
I will honorably treat and help in his necessi- 
ties. The rights, honors, privileges, and au- 
thority of the holy Roman Church, of our lord 
the Pope, and his aforesaid successors, I will 
endeavor to preserve, defend, increase, and ad- 
vance. I will not be in any counsel, action, 01 
treaty, in which shall be plotted against our 
said lord, and the said Roman Church, any 
thing to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, 



200 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

right, honor, state, or power; and if I shall 
know any such thing to be treated or agitated 
by any whatsoever, I will hinder it to my ut- 
most, and, as soon as I can, will signify it to 
our said lord, or to some other by whom it 
may come to his knowledge. The rules of the 
holy fathers, the apostolical decrees, ordinances 
or disposals, reservations, provisions, and man- 
dates, I will observe with all my might, and 
cause to be observed by others. Heretics, 
schismatics, and rebels to our said lord, or his 
aforesaid successors, I will, to my utmost, per- 
secute and oppose. I wdll come to a council 
when I am called, unless I be hindered by a 
canonical impediment. I will by myself in 
person visit the threshold of the apostles every 
three years ; and give an account to our lord, 
and his aforesaid successors, of all my pastoral 
office, and of all things any wise belonging to 
the state of my Church, to the discipline of my 
clergy and people ; and, lastly, to the salvation 
of souls committed to my trust ; and I will, in 
like manner, humbly receive and diligently ex- 
ecute the apostolic commands. And if I be 
detained by a lawful impediment, I will perform 
all the things aforesaid by a certain messenger 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 201 

hereto especially empowered, a member of my 
chapter, or some other in ecclesiastical dignity, 
or else having a parsonage, or, in default of 
these by a priest of the diocese, or in default of 
one of the clergy [of the diocese] by some 
other secular or regular priest of approved in- 
tegrity and religion, fully instructed in all 
things above-mentioned. And such impedi- 
ments I will make out by lawful proofs, to be 
transmitted by the aforesaid messengers to the 
Cardinal proponent of the holy Roman Church 
in the congregation of the sacred Council. 
The possessions belonging to my table I will 
neither sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, nor 
grant anew in fee, nor any wise alienate ; no, 
not even with the consent of the chapter of 
my Church, without consulting the Roman 
Pontiff; and if I shall make any alienation, I 
will thereby incur the penalties contained in a 
certain constitution put forth about this mat- 
ter. So help me God, and these holy gospels 
of God." 

Every Roman Catholic archbishop and 
bishop in the United States has taken this 
oath of allegiance to the Pope, without quali- 
fication or mental reservation. A stronger or 



20^ POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

more comprehensive oath could not be devised 
to bring one mider the complete and absolute 
control of another than is this oath of allegiance 
to the Pope. There are some points of par- 
ticular interest in this remarkable document to 
which we wish to call special attention. 

1. The bishop swears: "I will help them to 
keep and defend the Roman Papacy, and the 
regalities of St. Petei% saving my order, against 
all men." Here is an oath without condition, 
stipulation, or reservation, saving " my order," 
to "help keep and defend the Roman Papacy, 
and the regalities of St. Peter, agaijist all 'inenr 
We have seen, from the evidences produced in 
the preceding pages, that the " Roman Pa- 
pacy" claims to be the concentration and em- 
bodiment of all power, civil as well as ecclesi- 
astical, and that the regalities, or royalties, of 
St. Peter are, in the estimation of all **true 
Catholics," far above the royalties of any tem- 
poral sovereign ! These high claims the bishop 
here swears, imreservedly^ he will help " to keep 
and defend !" 

2. The bishop here swears : " The rights, 
honors, privileges, and authority of the holy 
Roman Church, of our lord, the Pope, and his 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 203 

aforesaid successors, I will endeavor to pre- 
serve, defend, increase, and advance!" 

We have seen that " the rights, honors, 
privileges, and authority" of the Church of 
Rome, and of the Pope, embrace, according to 
the authorized standards of authority in that 
Church, supreme authority over all nations 
both in temporals and in spirituals ; and this 
supreme authority in temporal things, claimed 
by the Pope, every bishop in America has 
sworn to "' defend, preserve, increase, and ad- 
vance." This oath does not simply bind the 
bishops and higher clergy to defend the rights 
and authority of the Pope, but it binds them 
to "increase and advance" that authority ! As 
this country does not acknov/ledge the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope, every bishop 
and archbishop in our country has solemnly 
sworn that he will, to the utmost of his ability, 
labor to secure the establishment of this su- 
premacy ! This oath can embrace nothing 
less than this, and the course pursued by the 
clergy of the Church of Rome in this coun- 
try proves clearly that this is perfectly under- 
stood by them as their sacred duty to the 
Pope. I know that this will be denounced 



204 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

by the Romish clergy and their political allies 
as persecution and slander, but their denun- 
ciations can not change the fact, which I 
have fully established by the known and ad- 
mitted standards of authority in regard to the 
claims of the Papacy to temporal supremacy, 
and this fact established, as I have estab- 
lished it, and the consequences here charged 
necessarily and inevitably follow. But this is 
not all. Dr. Brownson tells us, as we have 
seen, that even those Roman Catholics who 
condemn his imprudence, in so boldly advo- 
cating the temporal supremacy of the Pope, 
agree with him ''as to the supremacy of the 
spiritual order and the temporal jurisdiction 
of the Popes, but they think that all the ob- 
jections of non-Catholics can be adequately 
and honestly answered without - taking such 
high ground, and the ground of human right 
being sufficient and less offensive, it should, 
in prudence, be adopted, and the other doc- 
trine be passed under the disciplina arcaniT 
Here Dr. Brownson tells the whole truth on 
his more prudent brethren, and gives us un- 
mistakably to understand that the oath-bound 
hierarchy, whatever may be their public ex- 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 20$ 

planations of the temporal supremacy, adopt 
these only for the sake of prudence, while their 
real doctrine is passed under the ^^ disciplina 
arcaiiil' or " secret doctrine," held by the faith- 
ful. This reveals to us at once the deep-laid 
conspiracy of the Roman hierarchy against 
the liberties of this country ; and that, true 
to their oath of vassalage to the Pope, they 
are laboring with all their power to overthrow 
our free institutions and to subject this coun- 
try to the political dominion of the Pope. 

3. The bishop here swears: ''And I will in 
like manner humbly receive and diligently ex- 
ecute the apostolic commands." It matters 
not what command may come from Rome, the 
bishop is bound by the sacred obligation of 
the most solemn oath, '' humbly to receive and 
diligently execute" it. Now, when we take 
into consideration the dispensing power of the 
Pope, by which he can relieve the consciences 
of the faithful from every obligation, this pro- 
vision of the bishop's oath becomes one of 
fearful portent. The power of the Pope is 
held and regarded as supreme in all things, 
and, as the bishop's oath is absolute and with- 
out reservation, we can not conceive of a con- 



206 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

dition or circumstance where refusal to exe- 
cute a Papal command could be justified by- 
one of those oath-bound prelates. In case of 
foreign or domestic war the Pope, as supreme 
ruler in temporal things, might take sides with 
the enemies of the nation, and issue his man- 
dates to his bishops to refuse aid and comfort 
to their struggling country — -a thing which the 
Popes have often done— and there would be 
no alternative left to the bishops but per- 
jury and rebellion if they refused to obey, or 
treason to their country if they should obey. 
This is not an imaginary case. History 
furnishes us with scores of such cases. Nor 
can we be doubtful of the course the hier- 
archy would take under such circumstances, 
for all history shows that while there might be 
here and there a patriotic prelate who would 
dare to deny the right of the Pope to exercise 
such authority, the great majority would obey 
him, and in this they would be justified by 
their own principles. 

Suppose a quarrel should arise between the 
Government of the United States and the Pa- 
pal Government, this oath would bind every 
bishop and archbishop in the country to take 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 20/ 

sides with the Pope under pain of perjury, for 
the bishop swears: ''I will help them [the 
Pope and his successors] to keep and defend 
the Roman Papacy, and the regalities of St. 
Peter, saving my order, against all men !" 
This includes emperors, kings, princes, presi- 
dents, governors, etc., against all of whom the 
bishop swears he will help the Pope to de- 
fend the rights and privileges of the apostolic 
see, thus renouncing his allegiance to any civil 
government, and taking upon himself the obli- 
gation of supreme allegiance to the Pope. 

4. This oath binds every one who takes it 
to become a sworn persecutor of all who re- 
fuse to submit to the usurped authority of the 
Pope : " Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to 
our said lord, or his aforesaid successors, I 
will, to my utmost, persecute and oppose." 
But perhaps some advocate or apologist of 
Roman Catholicism will tell us, as Archbishop 
Purcell did in his debate with Mr. Campbell, 
that ^^ persequar'' does not mean "to persecute," 
but that "it means to follow, nothing more." 
But every one who is able to look into a Latin 
dictionary will see that it means "to follow 
after, to pursue, to proceed against, to revenge, 



208 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

avenge, or take vengeance upon or for ; or seek 
to avenge, punish," etc. (See Leverett's Latin 
Dictionary.) But the history of God's faithful 
and chosen worshipers for a thousand years, 
written in the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, 
which was shed like water by the Roman 
Catholic Church, can explain to us fully what 
perseqiLar means in the bishop's oath. The 
bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew, planned 
by St. Pope Pius V, and celebrated by Pope 
Gregory XIII, by the striking of medals and 
the singing of Te Detims, will help us to under- 
stand the meaning of '^ persequar'^ in this con- 
nection. The blood of John Huss and Jerome 
of Prague, murdered by the infallible Ecumen- 
ical Council of Constance, in open violation of 
the plighted faith of the Emperor Sigismund, 
will help us to understand its import. The 
rivers of blood which have been shed by the 
infernal office of the Inquisition, and the burn- 
ings of Smithfield, will help us also to under- 
stand in what sense persequar is used in the 
bishop's oath. 

The universal joy occasioned among Roman 
Catholics by the repeal of the edict of Nantes, 
will also help us to understand the import of 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 209 

this term. When Louis XIV consummated 
his wicked persecutions of the French Prot- 
estants, by the repeal of this, the charter of 
their rights, and in its stead enacted those 
bloody, persecuting edicts which in a few 
short years caused six hundred thousand of 
the best citizens of France to expatriate them- 
selves, the joy of the Roman Catholics was 
immense, and is forcibly pictured by St. John, 
in Rev. xi, 9, 10. 

The accomplished and liberal Bossuet said : 
"Affected by so many miracles, let us give 
vent to our feelings on the piety of Louis. 
Let us lift up our cries of joy to heaven and 
say to this new Constantine, this new Theo- 
dosius, this new Marcian, this new Charle- 
magne, what the six hundred and thirty 
fathers said, formerly, in the Council of Chal- 
cedon: *You have established the faith, 3^ou 
have exterminated the heretics ; a work wor- 
thy of your reign, and a proper characteristic 
of it. Through your exertions heresy exists 
no longer. God alone could perform this 
miracle. King of heaven, preserve the king 
of earth, is the prayer of the Churches — is 
the prayer of the bishops.' " 

14 



210 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

"Massillon eulogized, in his turn, the great 
victory of Louis XIV over heresy." He said : 
" Unto what point did he not carry his zeal 
for the Church, that virtue of sovereigns, who 
have only received the sword and the power 
that they may be the supporters of altars and 
the defenders of doctrine. O specious reasons 
of state policy ! In vain you opposed to Louis 
the timid views of human wisdom, the body 
of the monarchy, enfeebled by the evasion of 
so many citizens ; the course of commerce 
slackened, either by privation of their indus- 
try or the furtive deportation of their wealth ; 
perils fortified his zeal. The work of God fears 
not the opposition of man. He believed even 
that he strengthened his own throne by the 
overthrow of the throne of error. The pro- 
fane temples are destroyed, the pulpits of se- 
duction thrown down, the prophets of false- 
hood torn from their flocks. Heresy fell at 
the first blow Louis aimed at it, disappeared, 
and is reduced, either to conceal itself in the 
darkness from which it emerged, or to cross 
the sea and to carry with it its false gods, its 
wrath, and its bitterness into foreign lands." 

*' Flechier testified the same enthusiasm for 



GENERAL SUMMA RY. 211 

the zeal and piety of Louis XIV. In a discourse 
pronounced before the French Academy the 
Abbe Tallemand exclaimed, in speaking of 
the temple of Charenton [the Protestant 
Church near Paris], which had just been de- 
stroyed, * Happy ruins ! which are the finest 
trophy France has ever seen ! The triumphal 
arches and the statues erected to the glory of 
the King will raise him no higher than the 
overthrow by his pious efforts of this temple 
of heresy. That heresy, which supposed itself 
invincible, is entirely subverted. There ap- 
peared so much might in the conqueror of 
heresy that the idea alone of that victory cast 
into the souls of his enemies a paralyzing ter- 
ror, and there is nothing but the fable of the 
vanquished hydra which can aid us to express 
in some degree our feelings of admiration at 

this astonishing victory 

''At Rome the joy was immense. A Te 
Deiim was sung in thanksgiving for the con- 
version of the Protestants, and Pope Innocent 
XI sent a brief to Louis XIV, in which he 
promised him the unanimous praises of the 
Church. The fine arts in their turn cele- 
brated this deplorable victory. Paintings may 



2 1 2 POLITICAL R OMANISM. 

be seen still in one of the brilliant saloons of 
Versailles, of hideous figures, which appear to 
fly at the sight of the chalice. That chef- 
doeuvre of Lesueur represents the sects con- 
quered by the Roman Catholic Church. The 
provost and echeviiis of Paris erected at the 
Hotel de Ville a brazen statue consecrated 
to the King, the destroyer of heresy. The bass- 
reliefs represented a frightful bat, enveloping 
in its huge wings the works of John Huss 
and Calvin. On the statue was this inscrip- 
tion: ^ Ludovico magna y vict07'i perpetno ecclesice 
ac regum dignitatis assertori! Medals were 
struck to immortalize the remembrance of 
that fatal event. One represented Religion, 
planting a cross among ruins, to mark the tri- 
umph of truth over error, with this legend, 
* Religio victrixy on the field ; and on the re- 
verse, * Temp lis Calviniafzorum eversisy 1685.' 
Another represented Religion placing a crown 
on the head of the King, who leaned upon a 
rudder-head, and trampling Heresy under foot, 
with this legend, which contains both an error 
and a falsehood : ^Ob vices centena millia Calvin- 
ianoriim ad ecclesiam revocata MDCLXXXV.'" 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 213 

(Weiss* History of the French Protestant Ref- 
ugees, vol. i, pp. 123-126.) 

These quotations show us exactly in what 
sense the bishop's oath uses ^' perseqiiary Re- 
member every Roman Catholic bishop and 
archbishop in the United States has taken a 
most solemn oath that he will, to his '^utmost, 
persecute and oppose" ''heretics, schismatics, 
and rebels against the Pope." 

A heretic is one who rejects the doctrines 
of the Church, and holds and teaches dogmas 
different therefrom. A schismatic is one who 
agrees in doctrine with the Church, but who 
will not hold communion with her on the 
grounds of discipline ; and a rebel against the 
Pope is one who denies his authority, as held 
and taught by the Church. These three 
classes embrace all non-Catholics, and this 
oath binds every one who takes it to become 
a persecutor to the utmost of his power, of 
every one who differs in doctrine or disci- 
pline from the Church of Rome, or who de- 
nies the supreme authority of the Pope. It 
is true, in this country the Roman hierarchy 
know that they can not carry out their bloody, 
persecuting principles publicly, and hence the 



214 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

only attempts of the kind they have yet made 
in this country has been either to get up mobs 
against those who dare publicly to expose 
their wickedness, and by this means to in- 
timidate their opponents, and suppress inves- 
tigation, and prevent an exposure of their cor- 
ruptions and their treason to the principles 
of human liberty ; or, to wreak their venge- 
ance on the helpless victims whom they have 
succeeded in immuring in their convents, and 
over whom they have, with shame, let it be 
said, to the laws and free institutions of our 
country, unlim.ited control, not subject to the 
inspection and supervision of the civil author- 
ities ! But in the countries under the con- 
trol of Roman Catholicism, they exhibit the 
same persecuting spirit which has ever char- 
acterized the Church of Rome, just as far as 
they have the power ; and in this, too, they 
are but following out the intolerant and per- 
secuting principles publicly proclaimed and set 
forth by the present infallible . head of the 
Church, Pius IX, in his Encyclicals and the 
Syllabus, which he sent forth to the world 
when he assembled the present Council of the 
Vatican. 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 21 5 

But here Roman Catholics, and their polit- 
ical apologists, may reply, " Protestants have 
persecuted Roman Catholics, and one another 
also, when they have had the power." It is 
true, there can be found isolated cases v/here 
Protestants, just emerging from the darkness 
and superstition of Roman Catholicism, have 
brought with them from Rome a small por- 
tion of her persecuting spirit. But these are 
isolated cases, and against both the spirit and 
principles of Protestantism, and this persecut- 
ing spirit has soon died out under the enlighten- 
ing and elevating influence of the principles of 
Protestantism. But both the spirit and prin- 
ciples of the Church of Rome are persecuting, 
and if we find now and then a bright and 
shining example of toleration among Roman 
Catholics, it exists in spite of the principles of 
their Church, and generally, if not uniformly, 
owes its very existence to outward circum- 
stances over which she has no control, as the 
toleration of the Roman Catholic colony of 
Maryland, which Roman Catholics in this 
country boast so much about, ignoring the fact 
that that colony held its charter from a Prot- 
estant king, and that it was compelled to be 



2l6 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

tolerant toward Protestants because it held its 
existence under a Protestant grant! Under 
these circumstances, surely, Roman Catholics 
can not take m.uch credit to themselves for 
their toleration. But where has the Roman 
Catholic Church been tolerant when she has 
had the power to be intolerant? Every char- 
ter of human liberty which has been obtained 
by the oppressed children of the Romish 
Church, from the grand old Magna Charta 
of England, down to the recent Constitution 
of Austria, has met with the condemnation 
and the curses of the Popes, and whatever of 
human rights the Church of Rome has granted 
to those under her power, have been extorted 
from her by force and against her will. -And 
to-day, a feeble old man in his dotage, fit 
representative of the Church of Rome, and 
claiming personal infallibility, is thundering 
out in the ears of Christendom his impotent 
anathemas against toleration and human free- 
dom. In vain may Roman Catholics, or their 
apologists, claim for the Romish Church the 
principles of toleration and freedom, until 
she, of her own accord, relaxes her tyran- 
nical grasp from the throats of her oppressed 



GENERAL SUMMARY. 217 

children, and restores to them their God-given 
rights. 

Just in proportion as the Church of Rome 
increases in this country does she increase in 
the arrogance of her claims. A few years 
ago Bishop England, the greatest Roman 
Catholic divine in America at that time, ap- 
peared before the American Congress, and in a 
labored speech attempted to show that the Pope 
claimed and exercised no temporal power now 
outside of his own territories, and that he never 
claimed or exercised any temporal power over 
the nations of Christendom only when cases 
were referred to him as the common father of 
Christians by the contending parties themselves. 
This was the ground taken by Bishop Purcell 
in his debate with Mr. Campbell in Cincinnati. 
But we find now as the Romish Church is be- 
coming stronger and less cautious, some of 
their leading journals boldly advocate the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope on the ground of 
Divine right, while the whole hierarchy hold 
the same view, but out of mere prudence many 
of them hold their peace on a question of such 
unpopularity for the present, as it would do 
harm to the cause, and they are therefore in 



2l8 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

favor of waiting until they become strong 
enough to enforce this high claim before they 
publicly put it forth. 

We should never forget for a single moment 
that the Romish hierarchy in this country are 
the sworn enemies of our free institutions, un- 
der the most binding oath of allegiance to a 
foreign despot, the principles of whose govern- 
ment are diametrically at war with every prin- 
ciple of our Government, and who claims, as the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, supreme temporal as 
well as spiritual power over al] the nations of 
the earth, \and that every member of the hie- 
rarchy is sworn to "preserve, defend, increase, 
and advance the rights, honors, privileges, and 
authority of the holy Roman Church, of our 
lord the Pope, and his aforesaid successors." 
Now every man knows that this authority of 
the Pope can not be established in this country 
without the complete overthrow of our civil 
institutions, and yet every Roman Catholic 
bishop and archbishop in the land is sacredly 
bound by the most solemn oath to use his 
utmost endeavors to "increase and advance" 
the "authority" of the Pope in this country, 
and to "persecute to the utmost" all those 



GENERAL SUMMARY, 219 

who reject the authority of this foreign despot 
who is seeking to bring this fair heritage of 
freedom under his despotic control ! Let free- 
men take the alarm, and stand upon their 
watch-towers, knowing that "eternal vigilance 
is the price of liberty." 



220 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

OCCUPATION OF ROME BY THE KING 
OF ITALY. 

IT is a well-known fact, that the temporal 
sovereignty of the Pope, over the so-called 
States of the Church, has been maintained by 
French bayonets for the last twenty years ; 
and that the people of those States, without 
the assistance of the army of Victor Emmanuel, 
would have themselves thrown off the Papal 
yoke, and joined with United Italy immediately 
on the withdrawal of the French troops. This 
is so well known by both Roman Catholics and 
Protestants, that all knew that the moment the 
French army should be withdrawn, the civil 
government of the Pope would cease to exist. 
It is also well known that the great majority 
of the subjects of the Pope ardently desired to 
unite with the Kingdom of Italy, and so soon 
as they had an opportunity to express that 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 22 1 

desire by the ballot, they almost unanimously 
declared in favor of the union. These are 
facts which every intelligent man, who is 
honest with himself, is bound in his heart to 
admit, whatever he may say to the contrary. 
But the moment this long-cherished desire 
and hope of the oppressed subjects of the 
Roman Pontiff was accomplished through the 
action of the Italian King, one universal wail 
of indignation and denunciation went up from 
the Roman Catholics of every land against 
the King of Italy as *'a robber, a thief, a par- 
ricide, a deicide," and every thing that is vile 
and mean. Foremost in this tirade of abuse 
heaped upon the head of the patriotic king, 
who is working so heroically for the unifica- 
tion and liberation of his country, are the 
Roman Catholic clergy and laity of the United 
States. Thus we have the spectacle pre- 
sented before the world of men, who, to gain 
the right of self-government, have expatriated 
themselves from their own native lands — men 
professing to be the firmest friends of repub- 
lican government, men professing to be demo- 
crats in the fullest sense of the term, indig- 
nantly denouncing the people of Italy for 



222 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

exercising this inalienable right, and in the 
most emphatic manner denying that their op- 
pressed and down-trodden brethren in Italy 
possess the right of self-government at all ! It 
is needless to say that no man can be a friend 
of republican government at heart, and deny 
the right of any people in any country, of self- 
government. The thing is an absurdity, and 
the Roman Catholic Church in these United 
States, by denying the right of self-govern- 
ment to the down-trodden subjects of the 
Pope, has convicted herself before the Ameri- 
can people of being an enemy of free govern- 
ment, and allied to the worst form of despotism 
the sun ever shone upon. 

But perhaps some will say: "This is a slan- 
der on the Roman Catholic clergy and laity of 
this country — that they do not deny the right 
of the Roman people to govern themselves, 
but they denounce the act of the King of Italy 
as a usurpation, and that too against the wishes 
of the Roman people themselves." I do not 
propose to bring an accusation against Roman 
Catholics which I can not prove, and I will, 
therefore, let them speak for themselves. I 
will first quote from the protest of the Arch- 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 223 

bishop, bishops, and people of the Archdiocese 
of Cincinnati, published in the Missouri Repiib- 
lica7iy December 2, 1870: 

^' The Clergy and the Catholic people of the Ecclesias- 
tical Province of Cinciniiati^ against the nnjust 
and sacrilegious usurpation and spoliation of the 
City of Ro7ne, the Patriinony of St. Peter ^ and the 
tei?iporal possession of our holy and beloved father^ 
Pius IX^ by the wicked Pied77io7itese Govern7ne7it : 

"The seventh commandment of the Deca- 
logue, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and the tenth, 
' Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods,' are 
the imperishable foundation of this solemn pro- 
test. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet 
what is not thine. But these violations of the 
laws of God do not constitute all the guilt of the 
Sardinian robbers. The crime they have com- 
mitted is like that of the Jews, a Deicide. It 
is directed against Christ himself in the person 
of his Vicar on earth. It is a desecration of 
God's sanctuary, 'the abomination of desolation 
standing in the Holy Place.' It is an outrage 
to the sacred memories of the dead who gave 
to the Holy See the independent territory in 
which its venerable occupant should enjoy per- 
fect immunity from secular interference and 



224 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

hostile control, a sacred principality, from 
which, as from a watch-tower, he could survey 
the Christian world, sending missionaries to 
the heathen, confirming his brethren, saving 
the flock of Christ, committed to his fatherly 
care, from the prowling wolf, the poisonous 
pasture, the snare laid in the dark, and the 
noonday devil. It is an outrage to the living 
in every nation under heaven, who bow with 
religious veneration, with the conviction of the 
intellect and all the heart's affections to the 
spiritual supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, suc- 
cessor of the Chief of the Apostles. It is a 
fatal wound inflicted on the very existence of 
society, on law, and justice, and order. 

*' Whose life, whose property is secure, what 
vested rights are inviolate, what covenants 
sacred, what solemn obligations of nations or 
individuals respected, when possessions con- 
secrated by the justest of all titles, and guar- 
anteed by a tenure of fifteen hundred years 
under the peaceful rule of a line of princes with 
which none that the world has seen can com- 
pare, can be invaded with impunity "i , , . 

^'In the injustice done to the Pope, unpar- 
alleled since the crucifixion, an effort is made — 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 225 

God grant that it may be unsuccessful — to 
destroy the very ideal of honesty, to efface 
from the conscience and the heart the last 
vestige of the impressions of morality and 
respect for the rights of others ordained by 
the great Creator. Let such wrongs remain 
unredressed, and we might well break, like the 
Jewish legislator, the tables of the law, and 
not blaspheme Jehovah by a prayer for their 
restoration." 

This document, from which I have quoted, 
is signed by Archbishop J. B. Purcell, and the 
eight bishops of his archdiocese ; and, in con- 
clusion, these prelates say: "We recommend 
that books be provided in every Church, in 
which the members of the congregation may 
have the honor and the privilege of recording 
their names and the number of their families, 
as a perpetual memorial of their detestation of 
injustice and their sympathy with the august 
personage who holds on earth the place ot 
Christ, in the government of the Church." So 
we see the faithful of the archdiocese of Cin- 
cinnati are to join with their chief pastors in 
this solemn protest against the occupation of 
Rome by the Italian Government ! 

15 



226 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

There are some points in this remarkable 
protest that we wish particularly to notice. 

1. The political government of the Pope over 
the patrimony of St. Peter is styled " a sacred 
principality." This means more than that it 
should be sacred from invasion from without. 
It means, in the language of these republican 
prelates, that it is a principality by Divine ap- 
pointment, and thus we have the whole Roman 
Catholic hierarchy and people in the archdio- 
cese of Cincinnati proclaiming in republican 
America that '' princes rule by the grace of God," 
that is, by Divine appointment! No repub- 
lican can make any such claim for any earthly 
prince, be he Pope or Emperor, and by this 
very proclamation these Roman Catholic prel- 
ates and people have declared that they are 
anti-republican, and believe in the Divine right 
of kings. 

2. This protest declares that the "posses- 
sions" of the Pope have been ''consecrated by 
the justest of all titles, and guaranteed by a 
tenure of fifteen hundred years !" I wonder 
if Archbishop Purcell and his bishops think 
that they can palm off on the American peo- 
ple the story of the gift of the Western Em- 



OCCUPA TION OF R OME. 227 

pire to the Pope by Constantine the Great ! 
The date they fix for the beginning of the po- 
litical government of the Pope would indicate 
that they entertained such thoughts. All the 
world knows that the Pope possessed no polit- 
ical government until the middle of the eighth 
century. What object, then, could these prel- 
ates have in stating that the Pope's political 
power has been '^guaranteed by the tenure of 
fifteen hundred years," unless it had been 
meant to sanction the forgery of Isodore } But 
this protest declares that the Pope held his po- 
litical power over the States of the Church 
''by the justest of all titles!" Now, we ask, 
what do these prelates consider "the justest of 
all titles " to political power ? We know that 
the political power of the Popes originated in 
the gift of Pepin, King of France, which was 
confirmed by Charlemagne. This gift was 
made by Pepin, A. D. 754. What right does 
this gift of the French King confer upon Pius 
IX to exercise political power over the inhabi- 
tants of the territory which was conquered 
from the Lombards, and bestowed upon the 
Pope a thousand years ago 1 Had Pepin any 
more right to take that territory from the Lorn- 



228 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

bards, and give it to the Pope, than Victor 
Emmanuel has to take it from the Pope and 
annex it to his own kingdom ? Thus we see, 
after all the denunciations of Roman Catholics 
against the King of Italy as ''a robber, a thief," 
etc., the political power of the Pope over the 
States of the Church originated in robbery and 
theft, instigated by the Pope! Is this what 
these men call "consecrated by the justest of 
all titles ?" 

Among republicans, no title to political 
power is considered just which does not origi- 
nate in, and is not sanctioned by, the popular 
will. But the political power of the Pope over 
the States of the Church did not originate in, 
nor was it sanctioned by, the popular will ; 
therefore, it had no just title to existence at 
all. These republican Roman Catholics, or 
democratic Roman Catholics, as probably they 
would prefer to be called, do not recognize the 
right of the people in the States of the Church 
to have any will or voice in their government 
at all! They ignore the fact, with which all 
the world is familiar, that it was the universal 
desire of the oppressed subjects of the Pope to 
be annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, and that 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 229 

they, by a unanimity unparalleled, expressed 
that desire at the ballot-box. But, in the esti- 
mation of American Roman Catholics, this 
unanimous vote of the people could confer no 
right upon the King of Italy to extend his 
authority over these people ; for, according to 
them the rights of the Pope as a political prince 
are " ordained by the great Creator !" Now, I 
ask, do not the Roman Catholics, who signed 
this protest, stand self-convicted before the 
world of being anti-republican, anti-American, 
and opposed to the fundamental principle of 
our Constitution and government, which bases 
the right to political power in the consent of 
the governed ? 

Bishop Persico, of Savannah, Ga., in a pas- 
toral letter to the clergy and laity of his dio- 
cese, dated Dec. 8, 1870, and published in the 
New York Freeman s yournaloi Dec. 17, 1870, 
comes out still plainer than Archbishop Purcell 
and his bishops in their protest. He says: 

"We need not announce to you, beloved 
brethren, for you already know, that our holy 
father, Pius IX, has not only been robbed of 
that territory which was sacred by every title, 
but even of his personal liberty, being virtually 



230 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

a prisoner in the hands of his enemies. You 
well know that the throne upon which the Pope 
sits was inherited by him in virtue of a title 
the most ancient, the most legitimate, and the 
most sacred." Again he says : 

"But to return to the present case. We 
deny altogether that the subjects of the sov- 
ereign Pontiff have had any grievances to be 
redressed, or any need of the interference of 
any power, or of any guarantee for their civil 
and social rights. The paternal sovereignty 
of the Pope is dcfar better gitarantee for thevt 
than sitjfiage or elective legislators caii be for 
any other people. It is, moreover, jnst as incom- 
patible with the v.ecessaiy i7idependence of the 
vicar of Chr ist that he should be controlled by a 
legislative assembly as that he should be subject 
to a king. We do not admit the validity of any 
plebiscitum against his sovereign rights, even if 
f7'eely and fairly taken, much less as taken len- 
der existing circnmstancesr 

Here w^e have a distinct and emphatic denial 
of the right of the people of the Papal terri- 
tories to have any voice w^hatever, under any 
circumstances, in their political government — 
their civil and political rights. We are plainly 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 23 I 

told that " the paternal sovereignty of the Pope 
is a far better guarantee for them than suffrage 
or elective legislators can be for any other peo- 
ple!" Now, if the paternal sovereignty of the 
Pope is better for the people of Italy " than suf- 
frage or elective legislators," would it not be 
also for all other people? The reasoning that 
would sustain the claims of the Pope's Govern- 
ment as the best ''guarantee" of the social 
and political rights of the people in the Papal 
territories would sustain the same claim in re- 
gard to any other people ; and the man who 
would argue thus in regard to that people, 
would argue in the same way in regard to any 
other people, if the circumstances of the case 
would permit. This is precisely the views of 
the Romish hierarchy. They believe the "pa- 
ternal sovereignty of the Pope" is the best 
''guarantee" for the nations, and hence they 
are seeking to bring the nations again under 
the authority of the Pope, as they were in the 
Middle Ages. 

But Bishop Persico goes further still. He 
denies the right "of any plebiscitum, even if 
freely and fairly taken'' to set aside the polit- 
ical government of the Pope ! 



2^2 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

This pastoral letter of Bishop Persico's is 
fully indorsed by the editor of the Freeman s 
yoicmal, and expresses the real sentiments of 
all "true" Roman Catholics. 

Bishop Persico here declares " that the throne 
upon which the Pope sits was inherited by 
him in virtue of a title the most ancient, 
the most legitimate, and the most sacred." 
We have already seen that the title by 
which the Pope has held his seat upon his 
political throne was founded in theft and rob- 
bery, Pepin, King of France, who, under the 
sanction of Pope Zachary, by an act of treason 
against his sovereign, Childeric, usurped the 
throne of France, and, as an atonement for his 
sins, and at the earnest solicitation of the Pope, 
made war on the King of the Lombards, robbed 
him of his territories, and then conferred them 
on the Pope. This is a fact of history which 
no intelligent Roman Catholic will for a single 
moment deny; and this is the title which 
Bishop Persico styles "the most legitimate, 
and the most sacred!" This is the Roman 
Catholic idea of justice ! 

That terrible despotism which the Popes 
exercised for a thousand years over the unfor- 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 233 

tunate inhabitants of the territory robbed from 
the Lombard kings by Pepin, and conferred 
upon them, has now, happily, been overturned 
by the popular will, and a constitutional gov- 
ernment established in its stead ; and this is 
denounced by the minions of the Pope in this 
country as a usurpation, a theft, a robbery, a 
deicide! We are, moreover, told by these Ro- 
man Catholic champions of the Pope, that his 
temporal despotism, which was founded in rob- 
bery and cemented by treason, is of Divine 
appointment, and that no power on earth has a 
right to abolish it — not even the people them- 
selves. But Bishop Persico continues : 

" The miserable and groundless assertions of 
the press about the oppression of the Roman 
people are not worthy a moment's serious at- 
tention. It is not possible to imagine a more 
paternal government, and a more equitable ad- 
ministration than that of the Pope's Govern- 
ment. In addition to this, when it is consid- 
ered that the patrimony of St. Peter is a most 
sacred legacy left for the welfare of religion 
and benefit of the Christian people of the 
world, and, therefore, that the Papal States, the 
residence of the common father of the faithful, 



234 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

is the property of the Catholics throughout the 
world, we can not remain passive under the 
present oppression, and, by our silence, sanc- 
tion the greatest possible injustice done to the 
Church. Consequently, we can not, compati- 
bly with our duty, refrain from making our 
solemn protest against this most unjust and 
wicked violation of all public la.w and right, 
this intolerable outrage upon the Catholic 
people of the v/hole world. It is the duty 
of every good and true Catholic, and of the 
Catholic people collectively, in every country, 
to make this protest in the most distinct and 
efficacious manner possible^ and to make use of 
all lawful means to restore the sovereign Pon- 
tiff to the possession and peaceful exercise of 
that royalty which belongs to him by the most 
legitimate titles, and which is necessary to the 
free and unrestricted jurisdiction of his spirit- 
ual supremacy over the Catholic Church, as 
well as ro the political tranquillity of Chris- 
tendom." 

The political government of the Pope was 
the most absolute despotism upon the face of 
the earth. The will of the Pope was the su- 
preme law of the land. No such thing as 



O ecu PA TION OF ROME. 235 

liberty of conscience was thought of being 
permitted under his government. '' Liberty 
of conscience and of worship," as we have 
seen, in the Encyclical of December 8, 1864, 
is styled " delirium !" This despotism, which 
deprives men of their dearest God-given rights 
and subjects them in all things to the caprices 
of the will of an absolute despot, amenable to 
no law, and often the most depraved and des- 
picable of tyrants, is held up before the 
American people as the most perfect civil 
government conceivable ! We are gravely 
told by this Romish bishop that ^ it is not 
possible to imagine a more paternal govern- 
ment and a more equitable administration than 
that of the Pope's Government!" This can 
only be regarded as an insult to every lover of 
free government, and as moral treason to the 
Government of the United States ; and it 
shows fully that the Romish hierarchy in this 
as in every other country, are the enemies of 
free government, and in league with the worst 
form of pohtical despotism, and that they are 
seeking to establish that despotism in this 
country on the ruins of constitutional liberty. 
In order f hat the reader may be able to form 



236 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

some idea of the political government of the 
Pope, we will hear the testimony of W. J. 
Stillman, who was United States Consul in 
Rome for four years, and who knows whereof 
he speaks. Here is his letter, as published in 
the New York Tribune, in reply to a communi- 
cation published in that paper, eulogizing the 
Papal Government at Rome, and copied into 
the Daily St. Louis Democrat of January 17, 
1871: 

"I resided in Rome from 1861 to 1865, and 
saw, in official and private capacity, as much 
as any artisan could see of the Government. 

'^ It was simply the most atrocious in exist- 
ence, except that of Louis Napoleon Bona- 
parte. Its traditions were as old as its au- 
thority, and the system of repression and 
espionage quite worthy of St. Petersburg. 
Not to speak of vague and general com- 
plaints, I know that spies were placed at the 
doors of the places of Protestant worship, to 
see if any Romans went in, and that one friend 
of mine, a surgeon in the French hospital, was 
arrested for having waited on his wife — an 
English woman — and carried at night to the 
Prison of the Holy Office — the euphonic for 



occur A TION OF R OME, 23/ 

the Inquisition — where he was menaced with 
severe punishment if he not only did not ab- 
stain from courtesies to Protestants, but compel 
his wife to leave the Anglican Communion and 
enter the Roman, and he finally escaped from 
them by an appeal to French protection as an 
employe. 

*' The brother of one of my most intimate 
friends was arrested in his bed at night, carried 
off by officers of the Holy Office, and never 
heard of again until years after, when a re- 
leased prisoner came to tell the survivor that 
his brother had died in the prison with him, 
and was buried in the earth of the dungeon. 

"Another of my friends, Castellani, the jew- 
eler, was under so severe police surveillance 
that for years he had not dared to walk in the 
street with any of his friends, and when his 
father died, the body was taken possession of 
by the police at the door of the house, the 
coffin surrounded by officials, carried to the 
church, and the next day buried, all tokens of 
respect to the deceased being forbidden, and 
all participation in the service by his friends. 
He and his sisters were Liberals in opinion. 

" The system of terrorism was such that lib- 



238 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

eral Romans dared to meet only in public, 
and never permitted a stranger to approach 
them in conversation. I never dared enter the 
house of a Roman friend for fear of bringing 
on him a domiciliary visit. 

** Masons know very well the history of two 
brethren hanged and buried in the highway for 
no other offense than being Masons. When 
the Lodge, which meets in Rome, in spite of 
ail, wished to send an address of condolence to 
the Grand Lodge at Washington, on the occa- 
sion of Lincoln's death, they were obliged to 
transmit the document through four messen- 
gers, the last not affiliated, so great was their 
danger if discovered to be Masons. 

" I can conceive of no system of torture w^orse 
than this terrible espionage, under which every 
patriotic Roman lay fearful of his ov/n breath — 
one scarcely daring to speak to another, except 
in tropes and innuendoes. They suffered the 
penalty of crime for the wish merely to be 
free. Had it not been for the system of 
counter-espionage kept up by the Roman 
Committee on the Government, no Liberal 
could have lived in Rome. When suspected 
they generally had warning by their own spies. 



OCCUPA TIOX OF ROME. 239 

** Worse than this — worse than any thing we 
can conceive — was the system of debauchery 
kept up by the priesthood. It was a proverb 
among the Romans that 'if one would go to a 
house of ill-fame he must go by day, at night 
the priests had all the places/ and another, 
that all married w^omen w^ere seduced by the 
priests. The amours and profligacy of An- 
tonelli were as well known as those of the 
late Emperor of France, and no one who has 
lived in Rome long can be unaware that the 
immorality of that city — except among the 
obstinate Liberals who rejected all preroga- 
tives of the Church, as such — was greater 
than any city in Europe, except Vienna and 
Naples, and worse in its type than that of the 
latter city. 

"The Roman Government of my time was 
the embodiment of the spirit of the Papacy of 
the Middle Ages. It had its rod over its sub- 
jects, as it always, has done. If the world 
made progress outside its walls, it v/as strong 
enough to repress mercilessly all evidence of 
it within. Conservatism of granitic rigidity 
was its role. In the course of my residence 
I made an attempt to introduce American ice 



240 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

in place of the dirty snow of the Alboni Hills, 
and formed a company which offered ice from 
American lakes, delivered for the same price 
as that then paid for the snow at the pits w^here 
it was packed. The offer was urged strongly 
in the interest of the hospitals and public 
health, but was refused, as the Government 
held the monopolist to the condition of main- 
taining the people of certain villages in the 
^vested interest' of 'gathering the snow/ 

"The only pins to be had in Rome were 
the old-fashioned wire-headed. An American 
lady, feeling the privation, proposed to import 
a quantity of English solid-headed pins, but 
was not permitted, because the trade in pins 
was a monopoly, and the contracts were those 
of a former generation. 

"Pius IX is, I believe, an honest and con- 
scientious man, of pure and exemplary life 
since his devotion to the Church; but the 
large majority of his subordinates were bigots, 
without honesty or sincerity, or worse. The 
whole power of the civil government — if a 
regime of priests can be so called — was spent 
in the maintenance of the privileges and in- 
terests of the ecclesiastical system ; the peo- 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 24I 

pie were indeed the sheep, and regarded 
much as the quadrupeds are by their shep- 
herds. Nothing but French bayonets kept it 
in existence, and the world may well be re- 
joiced at the end of an anomaly in modern 
civilization. If the Pope will dwell in a loyal 
city, I can recommend New York to him ; for 
it appears to take as kindly to ecclesiastical 
control of the Roman type as Rome does re- 
luctantly; and if he wants courtiers he may, 
it is safe to suppose, count on the politicians, 
who dare not speak a word of sympathy and 
congratulation for the Romans on their escape 
from slavery, for fear of offending the hie- 
rarchy. 

*' I remember a word which Kossuth said to 
me when he was in America — it seems to me 
prophetic and every day more ominous: *Mr. 
Stillman, if you do not get rid of these pol- 
iticians, your country will be ruined in less 
than fifty years.' This recurred to me on 
seeing that in the call for a meeting of sym- 
pathy with the Italians, not one professed pol- 
itician occurs — unless those of W. C. Bryant 
and G. W. Curtis are counted as such. 

** Not being a politician, and having no oc- 
16 



242 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

casion for the suffrages of those whose love of 

freedom is purely egotistic, or whose sympathy 

with it is merely an election mask, I am not 

ashamed, like the friend of a dark cause, to 

give you my name, only wishing for the sake 

of Italy that it were heavier and better known, 

and remain, in the strongest sympathy with 

your devotion to human freedom every-where, 

in New York as well as in Rome or in Dublin. 

"Yours sincerely, W. J. Stillman, 

" Late Ujiited States Co7is7il in Rome. 

*' Plainfield, N. J., January 6th.'" 

Here we have a brief picture of the justice 
and equity of the Pope's Government. This 
horrible condition of society in Rome was not 
under the reign of such monsters of vice and 
cruelty as Benedict IX, John XXIII, or Alex- 
ander VI ; but under the conscientious and up- 
right Pius IX, who is admitted by all to rank 
among the best Popes who' have occupied the 
Papal throne for a thousand years. If such 
was the administration of the Papal Govern- 
ment, and the condition of society under the 
reign of Pius IX, what must it have been un- 
der such monsters in human "shape as a ma- 
jority of the Popes have been. One can 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 243 

scarcely conceive of the wretchedness of the 
Romans under such a ruler as Benedict IX or 
Alexander VI, when under such a Pope as 
Pius IX their condition was such as here por- 
trayed by Mr. Stillman. Yet this most despi- 
cable of all despotisms, where the Inquisition 
with all its terrors and infernal appliances was 
in full operation to punish and overawe the 
people, is held up by the minions of the Pope 
in this country as the most ^'paternal, the 
most just, the most equitable government con- 
ceivable !" And when the just indignation of 
an oppressed and downtrodden people by their 
unanimous vote hurl this vile system of op- 
pression, cruelty, and crime against God and 
man from power, and choose in its stead a well- 
regulated constitutional government, where the 
rights of man are recognized, the oath-bound 
hierarchy of free America are foremost in their 
denunciations of the liberators of this long-op- 
pressed and suffering people, and their expres- 
sions of sympathy, and comfort, and offers of 
assistance to their relentless oppressors ! How 
long will it be before the American people will 
wake up to a realization of the dangers which 
threaten their liberties from the power and 



244 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

influence of these sworn friends and upholders 
of this most abominable and inhuman of all 
despotisms ! 

But we would like to know how the gift of 
Pepin to the Pope, of the territories which he 
had robbed from the King of the Lombards, 
gave "the Catholics of the whole world" a 
right to the Papal States ? This claim is put 
forth now every-where by the partisans of the 
Pope, as though the Roman Catholics of other 
countries have the right to determine the nat- 
ure and form of the civil government of the 
people who inhabit the so-called patrimony of 
St. Peter ! It would require more than the 
casuistry of the Jesuits to show how the theft 
and robbery of Pepin conferred the right of pos- 
session upon the whole Roman Catholic Church 
to the territories thus stolen ! The claim is 
simply ridiculous, and none are better aware 
of its futility than those who put it forth. 

But we are here told that the temporal sov- 
ereignty of the Pope over the Papal States 
''is necessary to the free and unrestricted 
jurisdiction of his spiritual supremacy over 
the Catholic Church, as well as the political 
tranquillity of Christendom." Here it is 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME^ 245 

claimed that, in order that the Bishop of 
Rome may perpetuate his usurped and anti- 
Christian power over his fellow-bishops and 
over the whole Roman Catholic Church, it is 
necessary that his temporal despotism, which 
was founded in theft, robbery, and usurpation, 
and perpetuated by armed force against the 
aspirations and rights of the people, must also 
be perpetuated ! Thus one great crime against 
the Church of God makes it necessary to com- 
mit another great crime against men. And 
when, in the just providence of God, the Pope 
is unable longer to maintain this unjust usur- 
pation of the rights of the people, the Roman 
Catholics of the whole world are called upon 
to come to the rescue, and once more fasten 
the iron yoke of Papal despotism upon the 
unwilling necks of the unfortunate people of 
Rome ! The sentiments of Bishop Persico are 
the sentiments of the whole Roman Catholic 
Church throughout the world ; and, in the vari- 
ous public demonstrations gotten up by the 
Romish hierarchy in this country, in behalf of 
the Pope, these and similar sentiments are pub- 
licly proclaimed from one end of this republic to 
the other, and a grand crusade against the King 



246 POLITICAL ROMANISM 

of Italy and for the restoration of the temporal 
sovereignty of the Pope is being preached by 
the Roman Catholic press and clergy through- 
out the world. 

A public demonstration was held in favor of 
the Pope in Buffalo, New York, on the 8th of 
December, 1870, which is thus indorsed by the 
editor of the New York Freeman s yotcrnal, 
December 17, 1870: *'In Buffalo there was a 
most exceptional demonstration on the 8th — 
the Festival of Our Lady. It was so grand, 
so just, in such exquisite taste, and backed up 
by so solid an indorsement, that we counted, 
certainly, on giving it a place in our columns 
this week. But we must postpone it with re- 
gret; for it was a model demonstration. It 
was dismally wet and unpleasant weather there, 
but, all the more, it was a grand exhibition of 
Catholic faith and fervor." In the Freeman s 
Journal^ of December 24th, we have a full re- 
port of this *' model demonstration." At this 
demonstration, Mr. D. D. Harnett, Esq., de- 
livered an address from which we quote the 
following: 

"Against this [the action of the King of 
Italy in taking possession of Rome] the sue- 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 24/ 

cessor of Saint Peter has raised iiis voice both 
as Pope and Prince — as Pope, resting securely 
on the Divine foundation of the Church, and 
as Prince, fulfilKng the high mission given him 
to perform toward the Christian world, by de- 
fining the duties and the rights both of the 
governing and the governed." Here is a lay- 
man in the Roman Catholic Church, a citizen 
of the United States, publicly proclaiming in 
the ears of the American people, that "the 
Pope, as Prince," has the right of " defining 
the duties and rights both of the governing 
and governed." This is placing the Pope, as 
a Prince, over the kings and governments of 
the earth, compelling both rulers and people 
to submit to his authority. Thus the doctrine 
of the Popes and Councils on the temporal 
supremacy of the Pope over the kings and 
rulers of the earth is unblushingly proclaimed 
and indorsed as the doctrine of the Roman 
Catholics of America! 

But again, Mr. Harnett, says : " In Christ's 
Kingdom upon earth, the Pope holds the place 
of his Divine Master. As Christ is king and 
ruler, the Pope is king and ruler." Gregory 
VH, Innocent III, or Boniface VIII, never 



248 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

put forth a stronger claim to absolute authority 
over the kings and rulers of the earth than is 
here put forth for the Pope by this American 
citizen. And yet this is but honestly stating 
the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church 
on this question, as we have demonstrably 
shown. Jesus Christ is ** King of kings, and 
Lord of lords." So the Pope, holding his place 
on earth, is "King of kings, and Lord of 
lords." Jesus Christ as Universal King " puts 
down one and sets up another." So the Pope, 
holding his place on earth, is Universal King ; 
he "puts down one and sets up another." 
This is the true doctrine of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, and American ears must yet be- 
come familiar with such pretentious claims of 
the Pope over the civil rulers of this land be- 
fore the public mind becomes fully aroused to 
the danger which threatens our free institu- 
tions from the hierarchal despotism of Rome. 
Again, Mr. Harnett says : 

"It is deeply to be regretted that in the 
present struggle between the Papacy and its 
enemies, many who love and venerate the sov- 
ereign Pontiff are ranged on the side of his 
persecutors. They argue that the question of 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 249 

the temporal power is one of accidental con- 
nection with the Church, that it matters really 
very little whether the Pope retain or lose his 
temporal sovereignty. They think his in- 
dependence can be secured without it, and in 
regard to the whole matter different men have 
different theories of their own. Some wish 
him to retain his dominions, but insist that he 
must adopt a new constitution. At all events 
he must bring his principles into conformity 
with modern ideas and civilization. Adopt a 
new constitution! Every body knows how 
difficult it is to frame and force a new consti- 
tution upon a population to work well. Con- 
stitutions must grow up naturally from, and be 
developed out of, the ideas, manners, and prej- 
udices of a people ; and as regards the States 
of the Church, it must be borne in mind that 
the Pontifical Government must exist under 
different circumstances, as it exists for a differ- 
ent end from any other." 

Here the idea of a *^ constitution'' to secure 
the civil and political rights of the unfortu- 
nate inhabitants of the so-called States of the 
Church, is scouted, as an idea that is not to be 
entertained for a moment ; and we are given 



250 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

to understand that the very nature and end of 
the Papal Government must forever preclude 
the possibility of a constitution or of "con- 
formity with modern ideas of civilization." 
This is the strongest reason that could possibly 
be assigned for the destruction of the Papal 
Government; for a government which must 
trample under foot the dearest God-given 
rights of humanity, in order to have an exist- 
ence, ought to meet the condemnation of uni- 
versal humanity, and be overthrown by an 
everlasting destruction. No government can 
exist by Divine appointment, which tramples 
under foot the God-given rights of humanity ; 
and when the friends of the Papal Government 
proclaim to the world, that the nature and end 
of that government preclude the possibility of 
a liberal constitution, and conformity to " the 
modern ideas of civilization," they sound its 
death-knell in the ears of an enlightened and 
liberalized humanity. 

But this "model demonstration" was not 
content simply with such speeches as that 
delivered by Mr. Harnett, and others, in the 
same strain. They adopted a solemn protest 
in the shape of "an address and resolutions 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 2$ 1 

to Pope Pius IX," the last resolution of which 
reads as follows : 

'' Resolvedy That we promise continued faith- 
fulness, obedience, and homage to the See of 
Peter, and that we still recognize, and shall 
continue to recognize you as the lawful King 
of Rome, and that we pledge our hearty co- 
operation to any movement of the Catholic 
world that has for its object the maintenance 
and integrity of your sovereignty." 

This resolution pledges these American Ro- 
man Catholics, who are citizens of the United 
States, to enter into any measure that ''may 
be agreed upon by the Catholics of the world," 
for the restoration of the temporal sovereignty 
of the Pope. They are thus pledged, if such 
a plan is agreed upon by the Roman Catholic 
world, to make war upon the King of Italy, 
and thus involve our Government in trouble 
with a friendly powder, and one with which the 
whole non-Catholic population of the country 
are in the most hearty sympathy. 

The whole Roman Catholic population of 
the country are adopting similar resolutions, 
pledging their sympathy and support to the 
Pope, and their press, and the press of the 



252 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

country has been teeming for months past 
with such pastorals, protests, speeches, and 
resolutions as we have quoted from, and we 
might easily fill a volume with these extra- 
ordinary documents, but what we have pre- 
sented are sufficient to show the views and 
feelings of American Roman Catholics. 

These Roman Catholic demonstrations are 
not designed simply to give expressions of 
sympathy for the Pope. They are designed to 
fan the fires of fanaticism of Roman Catholics 
into a flame, and to excite such a fervor of zeal 
for the Pope as to result in a grand crusade for 
the overthrow of Victor Emmanuel and the re- 
establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the 
Pope. Already the plans are being laid for this 
campaign by the Romish hierarchy in Italy. 
The secret of their plans is let out by the Ro- 
man correspondent, S. P. Q. R., of the New 
York Freemaiis yoinmal^ Jan. 7, 1871. This 
correspondent says : 

" I would like to call the attention of Catho- 
lics to an organization in Italy which would do 
much good in the States. The young men 
throughout all Italy have formed clubs or 
societies, under the direction of their Parish 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 253 

priests, and with episcopal sanction. Any 
young man traveling is furnished with a cer- 
tificate of membership which enables him to 
attend the meetings wherever he goes, and is, 
in fact, a recommendation or passport for him. 
The present scope of this organization is di- 
rected to prayer, religious duties, and the like ; 
but, by uniting all Catholics, it can hereafter 
be a mighty power for good,*' 

Here is a secret organization, under the di- 
rection of the Romash clergy of Italy, and, 
doubtless, blessed and sanctioned by the Pope, 
and which is designed to extend throughout 
the Roman Catholic Church, the special object 
of which, as can be seen from the above, is to 
unite all Roman Catholics in a league for the 
restoration of the temporal sovereignty of the 
Pope, the head-quarters of this organization 
being in Italy, under the immediate eye and 
direction of " His Infallibility !" This is the 
first part of the programme. The second part 
is, a " Grand Crusade" for the restoration of the 
political power of the Pope is to be gotten up 
under the direction, and through the instru- 
mentality of this organization, having its head- 
quarters in Rome, and receiving its chief direc- 



254 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

tion from the Vatican. Hence, we find the 
Roman Catholic press teeming with the most 
violent and incendiary appeals in favor of this 
*' Grand Crusade of the Nineteenth Century !" 
As a specimen of these mad appeals, we will 
give a few quotations from the leading Roman 
Catholic weekly of the United States, the New 
York Freeman s yournal. From a couple of 
editorials on this subject, in the issue of Dec. 
17, 1870, we take the following choice selections: 
" How shall we resist } The first impulse 
of the right-minded is that of Peter when the 
bands, led by Judas Iscariot, laid hands on 
our Redeemer : ' Lord, shall we strike with the 
sword ?' There is a time to strike with the 
sword. Simon Peter, named Prince of the 
Apostles, while following our Lord as a simple 
disciple, had a sword. Not only so ; he was 
commanded by the Lord to sell of his raiment, 
if need were, to buy one, if he had it not. 
This was not said to Peter for himself, as he 
never used it, except on one occasion, when he 
was told not to throw away his sword, but to 
put it in its scabbard. There is a time to 
strike, and there is a time to suffer without 
striking. The present hour, clearly, is one in 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 255 

which Catholics, except those invested with 
poHtical rule, are to keep the sword in its scab- 
bard. The time is not far distant when that 
sword can and should be drawn, not to injure, 
but to protect. But that time is not now^ 

Here we are plainly given to understand that 
if those Roman CathoHc rulers, who ought 
now to strike with the sword in defense of the 
Pope do not do it, the time will come soon 
when the people will themselves be ready, 
without their rulers, to draw the sword, and 
strike with it for the Pope — that is, so soon as 
the clergy get the programme for their crusade 
ready ! Again : The same paper says : 

'^ There are to be meetings upon meetings. 
There are to be demonstrations upon demon- 
strations. There are to be movements till sen- 
timent creates ptcrpose, and purpose brings 
forth action ! God wills it. 

''We are not to rest till, as at the Council 
of Clermont, the bishops assembled found the 
region round, for ten miles on every side, cov- 
ered by knights and men-at-arms, saying : ' We 
will no longer fight each other at the order of 
ambitious princes ; we will strike hands with 
each other to rescue the Holy City.' " 



256 POLITICAL ROMAXISM. 

Here we are plainly told that the object of 
all these demonstrations in favor of the Pope 
is to rouse the fervor of Roman Catholic devo- 
tion to the fighting point, and get up a general 
war for the restoration of the Pope's temporal 
sovereignty. 

But he continues : 

'^ A Crusade of the Nineteenth Century is 
needed to rescue the wealthy Catholic youth. 
They are the ones who are spending their for- 
tunes, and their lives, and their souls in the 
fast and foolish pleasures of the senses. They 
are driving their fast horses, lavishing money 
on 'pleasures,' so called, that give them no 
satisfaction, and ruining themselves in guilty 
ways that bring them only despair and shame. 
We want, from the hundreds of thousands of 
Catholics in this city, one generous cry to 
arise that will show those not already lost that 
they have something better to do. 

"This is the role that we must call our 
Catholic youth to fill ! Not to go as vagabond, 
illegal bands to war ; but, by a grand rally, with 
a noble purpose in view, to quit base and un- 
satisfactory diversions for the prospect of some- 
thing nobler. The first preparation is to be 



O ecu PA TION OF R OME. 2 $ 7 

the performance of Catholic duties. But, in 
complying with these, there is to be free scope 
given, for those who can, to prepare for a glo- 
rious crusade, to rescue our holy father, the 
Pope, from subjection to any crowned king. 
They can do this as citizens of a republic ; 
and as spurning the idea that otir Pope shall 
be less free than we are, or that the Pope is 
less the Pope of republics than of kingdoms." 

But the editor of the Freeman s yotcriial is 
not satisfied with preaching up this crusade 
against Victor Emmanuel and in favor of the 
Pope. His wrath has waxed exceedingly hot 
at those Catholic kings who have remained 
silent spectators of the "spoliation" of the 
States of the Church, and he appeals to all 
Roman Catholic people to rise in their might 
against their rulers, and reconstruct human 
society on the Roman Catholic basis — that is, 
the submission of kings and rulers to the tem- 
poral supremacy of the Pope, as in the Middle 
Ages. In his issue of Dec. 3, 1870, he says: 

"The miserable occupants of thrones in 
countries lately counted as Catholic, in Europe, 
have apostatized from the role of Catholic civ- 
ilization ! The appeal of the holy father is 
17 



258 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

now to the Catholic peoples. The peoples 
make and unmake kings and other rulers. At 
least, they can do it, if they have the energy 
and the courage. Nothing is more respected, 
in our age, than that rare quality — moral 
courage.'' 

What was the role kings and other rulers 
were called to play under the " Catholic civili- 
zation" from which, happily for mankind, they 
have apostatized.^ Every one knows that it 
was to take up the sword at *'the nod of the 
priest " and use it in defense of the Pope. Now, 
as the kings and rulers of "countries lately 
counted as Catholic" have "apostatized" from 
this "role," the people are appealed to by the 
Roman Catholic press, which now seems to be 
completely under the control of the Jesuits, to 
rise in their might, and hurl them from their 
thrones, and from their places of power, and 
put others in their places, who will conform 
their administrations to the ideas of "Catholic 
civilization !" This glorious revolution is to be 
accomplished, as we shall see directly, under 
the leadership of the "Catholic clergy!" In 
the same issue he says : 

" For seven hundred years past, in Christen- 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME, 259 

dom, the praises have been sung of the ' com- 
mon law,' long after that law had ceased to ex- 
ist according to its original character. It had 
its origin in the south of France, at a time 
when, in the political order as run by kings, 
chaos afflicted the Catholic people. Toward 
the close of the tenth century, lawless wars 
had so desolated France, that the people, una- 
ble to attend to honest industry, were starving. 
Human flesh was detected as exposed in the 
market places for food. The people^ having 
detected the monsters who did this, caught 
them, and, very properly, burned them at the 
stake. Government, in the hands of lawless 
rulers, had come to the desperate pass that it 
seems ^ in our day^ to be approaching agai^t ! 

'' It was in such a crisis of society that the 
people, helped and fostered by the Catholic 
clergy, organized in their neighborhoods for 
their own protection. They organized in their 
several parishes what they called ' Communes/ 
or ' Commons, of the Peace.' 

" They met in their churches, on great festi- 
vals, and, taking the sacrament, swore to one 
another to protect each and every one in his 
rights of person and of property. They swore 



260 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

to each other that they would not permit kings, 
or dukes, or counts, to force any of them into 
armies, to fight battles that were of no general 
benefit. They swore that their property should 
not be taken by these rulers to support idle 
wars of dynasties. They carried out, practi- 
cally, and, for them, effectively, what, in later 
days, has been recalled in ballad form as a dim 
reminiscence of a past that had been : 

*' ' Now, if I were but king of France, 

Or, better, Pope of Rome, 
I 'd have no fighting men abroad, 

Nor weeping maids at home. 
All the world should be at peace, 

And if I had the might, 
I 'd see that those Vvho made a quarrel 

Should be the only ones to fight.' 

'' Quaint and simple as these ballad lines are 
they tell the story of how order was brought 
out of chaos in the eleventh century, and so- 
ciety saved from ambitious rulers by the ' Com- 
mons of the Peace,' with St. Ives, of Chartres, 
as what we may call its grandest ' Chief Jus- 
tice.' 

"Well, there is, plainly, a great work to do 
now, if the world is not to come to an end. It 
must begin with the people. The rulers of a 



occur A rioN of rome, 26 1 

people can not, if they would, conduct a gov- 
ernment better than the people governed are. 
The reform must begin with the people. With 
what people 1 Why, with the Catholic people, 
or with those that accept and act on Catholic 
principles. There is no other code of public 
morals capable of saving public society. 

''Let us, then, be up and doing. Those 
amiable and quiet gentlemen, who sit still and 
comment shrewdly on events, have no more in- 
fluence in directing them than the flies who 
fasten on the spokes of a moving carriage. It 
is energy, it is self-assertion that wins the day. 
These qualities are not congenial to sentimental 
gentlemen. But sentimental gentlemen ought 
to keep in private life. For twenty years and 
more we have been an observer of how ' public 
opinion ' is formed. We have noticed that usu- 
ally they are the shallowest charlatans who form 
it. They are men who, having nothing to lose, 
are cheaply audacious. Nevertheless, they do 
much to form 'public opinion.' That it is not 
permanent, is because it is fictitiously created 
on bases that have no intrinsic worth. 

" Why not we Catholics use the daring with- 
out the sha^n of these men who govern public 



262 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

opinion ? We, in the Freeman s yournal^ have 
done some Httle in this way, and we propose 
doing a good deal more, if God spares our life 
to near the average age of our ancestors." 

Here we have the grand programme laid 
out how this glorious revolution in favor of 
*' Catholic civilization " is to be brought about. 
The Roman Catholic press and clergy are to 
create a public opinion in its favor, among Ro- 
man Catholics, of such strength that it shall 
culminate in such a revolution as shall once 
more set the Pope above the kings of the earth 
and compel them to submit their necks under 
his yoke. Such is the vision which flits before 
the imagination of the leaders in the Roman 
Catholic Church, both clerical and lay, and 
such is the object they are aiming at ; conse- 
quently, their papers are full of the most fear- 
ful lamentations over the present condition of 
human society, which is every-where, under the 
impulse of an enlightened civilization, emanci- 
pating itself from the dominion, the tyranni- 
cal authority and power of the Pope, just as 
though the bonds of all social order and polit- 
ical government were being dissolved, and hu- 
man society sinking hopelessly into chaos, and 



OCCUPA TION OF ROME. 263 

nothing but the re-establishment of '' Catholic 
civilization," which simply means the universal 
temporal supremacy of the Pope, can prevent 
this dreadful catastrophe. 



264 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM. 

ROMAN Catholicism is, traditionally, the- 
oretically, and practically, the most thor- 
oughly concentrated ecclesiastical and civil 
depotism that the human mind can conceive 
of. In ecclesiastical or spiritual matters the 
authority of the Pope is as absolute over the 
whole membership of the Church of Rome as 
the authority of Jesus Christ, whose place on 
earth, according to the universal Roman Cath- 
olic teaching, he occupies. He is infallible 
in doctrine and in morals, or, in other words, 
he is the only intellect and conscience in the 
entire Roman Catholic Church which dares to 
reason or pass judgment upon questions of 
faith or morals ; so that in the Church of 
Rome there is but one mind and conscience, 
and that resides in the Pope. 

In discipline and government the authority 



DAA'GERS OF CATHOLICISM. 26$ 

of the Pope is supreme over the entire body 
of the ''faithful," both clerical and lay, and 
"none can judge his judgments;" so that 
there is but one authority in the Roman 
Catholic Church, and that is the authority of 
the Pope, and to this every one of the '' faith- 
ful, of whatever dignity," is bound to submit. 
This absolute spiritual dominion over the mind 
and conscience necessarily carries with it com- 
plete dominion over the entire man in all 
things, both temporal and spiritual. This is 
the reasoning of Roman Catholics themselves. 
As the Pope is the sole fountain of authority 
in the Roman Catholic Church, no one can 
exercise authority therein, only those to whom 
he delegates such authority ; hence the gov- 
ernment of that Church is a ''graduated hie- 
rarchy," centering in and receiving all its au- 
thority from the Pope. Thus, the first lesson 
that is impressed upon the minds of the "faith- 
ful," and which is continually impressed through 
life, is unconditional submission of the mind, 
will, conscience, and life to the most absolute 
authority, which, coming down through this 
" graduated hierarchy," reaches from the high- 



266 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

est cardinal down to the lowest beggar, num- 
bered among the " faithful." 

Such unlimited authority on the one hand 
and submission on the other must, in the nat- 
ure of things, operate against free institutions. 
Hence, we have seen that the Church of Rome 
is and always has been the consistent enemy 
of free government and free institutions. Ev- 
ery movement of humanity toward political 
freedom has met with the anathemas of the 
Pope, from the grand old " Magna Charta " of 
England down to the emancipation of down- 
trodden and oppressed Italy in 1870. 

The doctrine of the Church of Rome on the 
rights of conscience stands diametrically op- 
posed to the fundamental principles of our 
Constitution, which guarantees '' liberty of con- 
science and worship" as the right of every 
man. But this provision of our Constitution 
is now a condemned proposition, both in the 
Pope's Encyclicals and Syllabus, and no Ro- 
man Catholic can maintain a "condemned 
proposition" since the proclamation of the 
Ecclesiastical Constitution of July 18, 1870, 
proclaiming the infallibility of the Pope in 
matters of faith and morals, and his supremacy 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM, 267 

in matters of discipline and government, with- 
out unchurching himself and falling under the 
greater anathema. 

This brings the question down to this point. 
The constitution and doctrine of the Church 
of Rome, in regard to the freedom of con- 
science and worship, is diametrically opposed 
to the Constitution and Government of our 
country and the doctrine of religious and 
political freedom they contain, and which is 
firmly held by all the friends of fiee govern- 
ment ; and, consequently, should the Church 
of Rome gain the ascendency in this coun- 
try she would overthrow our Constitution and 
destroy our free institutions." Thus the '* Ro- 
man question " is a very practical question be- 
fore the American people just now. 

I. Such a concentrated ecclesiastical despot- 
ism as the Church of Rome is, is always un- 
favorable to free political institutions, and its 
influence must necessarily be deleterious to the 
development or maintenance of free civil gov- 
ernment. The mind, habituated to such ab- 
solute submission to authority in ecclesiastical 
matters as the Church of Rome requires, is 
not prepared to enjoy or exercise that political 



268 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

freedom necessary for the maintenance of free 
government, especially when that despotic ec- 
clesiastical power is forever interfering with 
political questions or the civil laws of the land, 
and trammeling the political freedom of the 
citizen on the ground that these political ques- 
tions or civil laws interfere with ecclesiastical 
matters, or invade the "rights of the Church," 
as the Church of Rome is continually doing ; 
annulling civil laws, excommunicating kings, 
rulers, and people for their political action, as 
we have seen the Pope constantly doing for the- 
last thousand years. 

The history of the Christian world for more 
than a thousand years past abundantly proves 
that freedom of civil government can not exist 
under the influence and control of Roman 
Catholicism. I know that Roman Catholics 
point us to the Italian republics of the Middle 
Ages, and the little republic of San Marino, in 
refutation of this charge. But we ask, " Were 
those republics free governments of the peo- 
ple, where liberty of conscience and worship 
was guaranteed by the constitution and laws V 
Every intelligent person knows that these es- 
sential 'elements of free government never 



I 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM. 269 

entered into the constitution of one of those 
republics, and that while they were republics 
in name they lacked these essential elements 
of a true republican or free government. 

The republics of Europe in the last and pres- 
ent centuries, ^' which sprang up in a night, and 
perished in a night," and the republic of Mex- 
ico, and the republics of Central and South 
America all prove demonstrably that no stable 
republican or free government can exist and 
prosper where the influence of the Church of 
Rome is predominant over the people. An 
ecclesiastical despotism can not give birth to 
political freedom, nor can a country where an 
ecclesiastical despotism predominates enjoy a 
stable, free political government. The two 
things are so utterly antagonistic that they 
can not co-exist. 

2. The political government of the Pope over 
the so-called patrimony of St. Peter — which, as 
we have seen, was the most perfect political 
despotism conceivable, and the '^ nature and 
end" of which, we are gravely told, do not 
admit of either a constitution or an elective 
legislature, but which must, in the very nat- 
ure and end of the government itself, forever 



2/0 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

remain an absolute despotism, where the will 
of one man is the supreme law of the land — is 
just now being held up before American Ro- 
man Catholics as the most perfect government 
on earth, and as the very best government 
possible for the inhabitants of that unfortunate 
territory ; and we are told that " the Paternal 
Government of the Pope " is a better guaran- 
tee to them of their political and social rights 
"than suffrage or an elective legislature can be 
for any other people." No one can believe such 
a monstrous proposition, or accept such a des- 
potism as the most perfect form of political 
government, and be a friend of free govern- 
ment and of republican principles. Such dec- 
larations and teachings are designed to sap the 
foundations of our Government and to prepare 
the way for the establishment of a political 
despotism in this country, under the influence 
and control of the Pope, by familiarizing the 
public mind to the idea that this is the best 
form of political government, and the best se- 
curity for the rights of the people ! 

3. Our Common-School system, under the 
direction and control of Evangelical Protestant 
Christianity, is the great bulwark of our free 



DANGERS OF CA THOLICISM. 2/1 

government. No free government can long 
exist that is not based upon intelligence and 
virtue. We must not only have education, but 
that education must be brought under the in- 
fluence of Bible Christianity, if our free insti- 
tutions are maintained. This great truth must 
be sounded in the ears of the American peo- 
ple until they are made to realize its full force. 
The whole people must be educated, and their 
education must be grounded upon Bible mo- 
rality. Morals must be taught in our Common 
Schools, and consequently there must be a 
text-book and standard of morals. The only 
standard of morals recognized in this country 
is the Bible, and it is the only text-book of 
morals we have to put into the hands of our 
children ; hence it must not be excluded from 
our schools. 

But the Church of Rome directs her whole 
force against our entire Common-School sys- 
tem. She does not simply wish to exclude the 
Bible from the Common Schools, but she 
wishes to destroy the Common-School system 
entirely, and substitute in its place her own 
schools, and thus bring the children of the 
country under her direct influence. 



272 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

The whole Roman Catholic Church in this 
country is pledged to the overthrow of our 
Common-School system, and the hierarchy are 
working most sedulously for the accomplish- 
ment of this object. The Pope has uttered 
his condemnation of the Common-School sys- 
tem from his infallible chair, and every prelate 
in the hierarchy, and the whole press of the 
Roman Catholic Church, have caught up the 
echo, and the whole Church has fallen into 
line, and to-day, under the sanction and com- 
mand of a foreign despot, the whole Romish 
priesthood have entered into a conspiracy to 
overthrow the strongest bulwark of American 
freedom. The whole Roman Catholic Church 
■ to-day is in open rebellion against our Gov- 
ernment on this question, and that, too, at the 
command of the Pope ; and hundreds of truck- 
ling politicians and political newspapers are 
truckling to them, and siding with them to get 
their votes, thus shamelessly selling their 
country's highest interests for the sake of their 
own temporary political aggrandizement, or 
that of their political party. Is there not just 
ground of fear here for the safety of our free 
institutions } 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM. 2/3 

The Romish hierarchy know full well that 
our system of Common-School education is 
the most potent enemy they have to contend 
against. Let the Roman Catholic youth of 
our land grow up under our system of educa- 
tion, and as the light of free education and 
the facts of history unvarnished dawn upon 
their minds, they are as certainly lost to Rome 
as the Hindoo is lost to Buddhism when the 
light of natural science dawns upon his mind. 
To prevent this loss to the Church, and to secure 
the youth of our country under her influence, 
they have resolved to overthrow our system 
of education, and substitute their own in its 
place. 

4. The present system of Roman Catholic 
education in this country is accomplishing 
much toward bringing the country under the 
influence of the Romish hierarchy. But few 
persons are acquainted with the extent and 
magnitude of the Roman Catholic system of 
education in this country, or the tremendous 
influence the hierarchy are exerting upon the 
public mind, and especially upon the rising 
generation, by this means. There are at least, 
according to The Catholic Almanac for 1871, 

18 



2/4 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

three hundred and fifty Roman Catholic edu- 
cational institutions, male and female, in the 
United States. One hundred and sixty of 
these furnished a statistical report to the pub- 
lisher of the Almanac, and these statistics are 
published. On the seventy-first page we have 
a summing up of these statistics as follows : 

''COLLEGES, ETC. 

''Of the forty-nine colleges [reporting], the 
statistics of which we have before us, there 
are 555 professors, 248 priests, 7,167 pupils, 
and 205,000 volumes of books in their libraries. 
The oldest college in the United States is that 
at Georgetown, D. C, founded in 1792, and 
there have been two new colleges established 
in 1870. The largest number of books in any 
library is in that of Georgetown College, be- 
ing 33,000 volumes, and the smallest number 
is 200 volumes. The largest number of pupils 
in any college is 500 and the smallest num- 
ber 21." 

"ACADEMIES FOR YOUNG LADIES. 

" We have received returns from 1 1 1 of these 
institutions, from which we deduce the follow- 
ing statistics: Number of teachers, 1,211; 
number of sisters, 2,497 ; number of pupils, 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM. 2/5 

12,027, and number of volumes in their libraries 
64,587. The largest number of pupils in any 
institution is 435, and the smallest, 17. The 
largest library in any one institution contains 
15,000 volumes — that of the Sacred Heart 
Academy, St. Charles, Missouri — and the 
smallest contains only ico volumes. Many 
of the institutions, being lately established, 
have not had time to get libraries. The oldest 
institution is St. Joseph's Academy, Emmetts- 
burg, Maryland, established in 1809, and we 
find two or three new ones established in 
1870. 

" From these returns, imperfect as they are, 
it will be seen there are engaged in teaching 
the higher branches of education in 160 estab- 
lishments, 1,746 professors and instructors, 
2,760 priests and sisters, with about 2C,oco 
pupils. In all these institutions we find over 
270,000 volumes of books. Had we received 
complete returns, we should have been able to 
show that we are educating over 30,000 young 
men and women in the higher branches every 
year, with a proportionate increase of profes- 
sors and teachers." 

Just think of this tremendous educational 



2/6 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

influence and power, exerted upon the rising 
generation through these three hundred and 
fifty colleges and academies ; at least thirty 
thousand young men and young women being 
educated annually in the higher branches of 
education in these Romish institutions, and 
these institutions increasing at the rate of four 
or five per year. The first of them was founded 
seventy-nine years ago, and now the number 
has increased to three hundred and fifty, and 
still the increase goes on at the rate of four or 
five a year. This gives us some idea of the 
activity of the hierarchy in their work of bring- 
ing this country under their influence and 
control. 

The Church of Rome knows perfectly well 
that, in this country of education and intelli- 
gence, she can get control only by taking the 
lead in the work of education. In Roman 
Catholic countries she makes no special effort 
to educate the masses. She is more than will- 
ing that they should remain in ignorance, as 
she can control the ignorant and superstitious 
much better than she can the intelligent and 
educated. But where the people will be edu- 
cated anyhow, and she can not prevent it, 



DANGERS OF CA THOLICISM. 277 

there she knows her only chance is to educate 
them, and by this means bring them under 
her influence. Hence, she leaves her wretched 
children in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, and 
the South American States in their ignorance 
and wretchedness, and bends all her energies 
to the work of educating the rising generation 
in Protestant lands, and especially in these 
United States, which are just now the great 
mission-field of the Church of Rome. The 
poor, ignorant, and oppressed subjects of the 
Pope, in the Roman Catholic countries of Eu- 
rope, are made to furnish the men, the women, 
and the money to carry on this grand mission- 
ary scheme of Catholicizing this country. It is 
a fact, that perhaps not many Protestants are 
aware of, that the mission force of the Romish 
Church in this country is made up mostly of 
Irish Roman Catholics. Nearly all their acad- 
emies for young women are managed by Irish 
sisters, and thus Ireland is doing a gigantic 
work to bring the moral, religious, and educa- 
tional condition of this country to the same 
wretched condition to which that unhappy land 
has been brought by the influence and power 
of Romanism. 



278 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

But the main object of Rome, in her educa- 
tional work in this country, is to educate the 
mothers of America. She knows that if she 
can secure the mothers, she secures the chil- 
dren through the mothers' influence. If she 
can educate the mothers of the next generation, 
the next generation is hers. Hence, her main 
educational work is in her female academies, 
into which she is gathering the daughters of 
unsuspecting Protestants and non-Catholics, 
and making Roman Catholics of them by the 
thousand. These schools are, in fact, great 
proselyting institutions, where the most perfect 
3ystem of proselyting is carried on that can be 
devised. They are managed by persons who 
are trained for that work ; and, under the prom- 
ise of not interfering with the religion of the 
children committed to their care, they pursue 
their work — often silently for a season, but 
surely, and, in the great majority of cases, suc- 
cessfully. But few young ladies ever enter 
these Roman Catholic schools, who do not 
come out of them, if they come out at all, 
either confirmed and zealous Roman Cath- 
olics, or strongly biased in favor of Roman 
Catholicism. 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM. 279 

The Church of Rome got control of the 
world, during the darkness of the Middle 
Ages, by reconstructing the history of the 
earlier ages of Christianity — that is, by the 
forgeries of Isidore, and the other noted 
forgers of history in those times, and palming 
off those forgeries upon the ignorant princes 
of Europe as the genuine facts of history. 
The Jesuits, in the light of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, are attempting, practically, the same 
thing. They are actually attempting to recon- 
struct the history of the Middle Ages, and the 
times of the Reformation ; and the forgeries of 
Isidore are not more baseless and glaring than 
are the falsifications of the facts of mediaeval his- 
tory by these Jesuitical historians. They de- 
nounce such candid historians as Willson, who 
give a faithful account of the tyranny, persecu- 
tions, and wickedness of the Popes and clergy 
during the Middle Ages, nor will they permit 
such books to be used in their schools. Some 
months ago, there appeared an article in the 
Free:ya7is Journal^ written by a priest, de- 
nouncing "Willson's Outlines of History" in 
the most emphatic terms, and urging it as a 
strong objection against the Common Schools 



280 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

of the country that it was used as the text- 
book of history. 

Take up any text-book of history used in 
these Romish institutions, and you will find 
all the facts of history reversed. The Church 
of Rome appears always as the champion of 
the right, or as the persecuted spouse of Jesus 
Christ, suffering at the hands of cruel princes, 
who are seeking to despoil her of her rights. 
The Reformers are a set of vicious men, under 
the impulse of Satanic influence, or brutal 
lust, making war against the Church of Christ, 
and vainly attempting to overturn it, or to de- 
stroy its foundation ; their characters are as- 
persed, their doctrines caricatured — and these 
glaring falsehoods are taught the children and 
youth, who are so unfortunate as to be placed 
in those institutions, as the sober facts of 
history. 

Their school readers are filled up with the 
marvelous legends of their saints, or expositions 
and defenses of the dogmas of Romanism. 
This is the kind of literature that is taught in 
the Romish schools of our land, while the gor- 
geous ceremonies of the Romish worship are 
kept before the eyes of the students, and they 



DANGERS OF CA THOLICISM. 2 8 1 

are required, if for nothing else, for ^'form's 
sake," to take part in this idolatrous worship. 
While thus the mind is perverted by falsehood, 
and the senses captivated by the show of Ro- 
mish ceremonies, and the religion which is 
thus taught permits those who accept it to en- 
gage in the pleasures and amusements of the 
world, and all this recommended by the show 
of ostentatious outward piety by the sisters, to 
whom this work of proselyting is intrusted, is 
it any wonder that thousands of unsuspecting 
and simple-hearted girls should be captivated 
and yield to the influences thus brought to 
bear upon them ? The influence these Romish 
schools are exerting in this country is incalcu- 
lable, and the evil they are accomplishing can 
not be over-estimated. 

The number of universities, colleges, semi- 
naries, normal schools, etc., reported in the 
Methodist Almanac^ for 1870, is 103. The 
number of instructors is put down at 652 ; the 
number of male students at 6,184, and the 
number of females at 6,747; total, 12,931. 
These statistics are not exactly full, but it is 
safe to say that our educational institutions do 
not give instruction annually to more than 



282 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

15,000 students, or more than one-half as many 
as are being instructed in the Romish schools 
of our country. It is seen by these figures 
that the largest and most influential Protest- 
ant denomination in the United States is not 
doing more than one-half as much to educate 
the rising generation as the Church of Rome 
is doing; and we doubt very much if all the 
Protestant denominations put together are do- 
ing as much, outside of our public schools, to 
educate the rising generation of this country 
as the Roman Catholic Church is doing. This 
is an alarming and a humiliating fact, and it 
ought to rouse every Protestant, and every 
lover of his country, to action ; and let us see 
to it that this state of things shall not remain 
as a reproach upon Protestant Christianity. 

5. But the danger most apparent to this 
country from Romanism is its political power. 
The Romish hierarchy, through the confes- 
sional, and by means of their spiritual power 
over the consciences of the faithful, are able 
always to cast the Roman Catholic vote solid. 
This puts into the hands of the' hierarchy an 
immense political power. In fact, it often puts 
the balance of power in their hands, and they 



DANGERS OF CA THOLICISM, 283 

never fail to use it to their own advantage. 
The great curse of our land and of all repub- 
lics is corrupt, unscrupulous politicians, men 
who would sell themselves, their friends, and 
their country to accomplish their own political 
ends. These men will play into the hands of 
the hierarchy, and do any thing for them they 
may demand, in order to get the Roman Cath- 
olic vote ; hence, wherever the Romanists have 
the majority, or hold the balance of power in 
our cities, the municipal government is run in 
the interest of the Church of Rome, as we see 
in the city of Nev/ York, where millions of the 
public treasure have been voted to the Church 
of Rome ! It is this political corruption that 
gives the hierarchy their great political power, 
and that secures the Church of Rome that 
immunity which she enjoys in this country, 
in practically carrying out the infernal work 
of the Inquisition, through her convents and 
religious houses. 

The system of government adopted by the 
Church of Rome for her convents, her schools, 
and her reformatory institutions would not be 
tolerated in this free land a single day were it 
not for her political influence and her money 



284 POLITICAL ROMANISM, 

power. When once an unfortunate woman is 
immured in a convent, all hope of escape is 
cut off, and the strong arm of the lav/, which 
would be stretched forth in defense of any 
other person subject to religious tyranny, is 
powerless to reach her case or render her as- 
sistance. An unfortunate child once under 
her power is completely helpless in her hands. 
Her convents, her schools, her reformatory 
houses are inclosed with walls and gates so 
secure that the outside world must remain in 
profound ignorance of what is going on within. 
If an unfortunate one escapes to tell her story 
of grief and wrongs, or attempts to break the 
fetters which have bound her soul, she is spir- 
ited away and so securely immured, that all 
search for her is vain. These outrages have 
been committed again and again in the light 
of the sun in this free and happy country, and 
yet, after the momentary excitement has died 
away, no voice has been raised against the 
atrocious system that permits such outrages 
against the rights of humanity. Helpless and 
innocent females are imprisoned in their houses 
of correction by brutal fathers, husbands, or 
guardians, and the law provides no way of 



DANGERS OF CATHOLICISM, 285 

redress. Only a few weeks ago I went down 
to the city of St. Louis to get a girl to assist 
my wife in doing the house-work. I found a 
smart, intelligent Roman Catholic girl at the 
*' House of Refuge," who had been so badly 
treated by the Roman Catholic family with 
whom she had lived that she could not endure 
it, and she had gone to the ''House of Ref- 
uge" for protection. The authorities turned 
her over to me, and I made a contract with 
her and brought her home with me. She said 
she was seventeen years old, and an orphan. 
We found her to be all we could desire in 
regard to work, disposition, etc. Just a week 
after she came to my house the son and daugh- 
ter of the woman with whom she had lived 
came to my house in my absence, claimed that 
their mother was her guardian, which she de- 
clared was false ; but they took her forcibly, 
and against her will, back to St. Louis, and 
had her incarcerated in the "House of the 
Good Shepherd" as a criminal, who needed 
reforming ! On my return home I went down 
to St. Louis, and complained to the Chief of 
Police. He ferreted the matter out, and found 
her as above stated, but he said he could do 



2S6 POLITICAL ROMANISM. 

no more. I went and examined the records 
of the county and found that there was no 
such guardianship in existence. But my only 
chance to get the girl out of the power of her 
tormentors was to go into a lawsuit, without 
much probability of success under the circum- 
stances ; and, as I had no money to spend in 
that way, I was compelled to leave her in 
their hands. Similar cases are of constant 
occurrence, and yet nothing is done to correct 
these outrages. Politicians and statesmen are 
afraid to attempt a legal remedy, by placing a 
system of supervision over all these institu- 
tions, to prevent these abuses, for they know 
if such an attempt should be made it would 
array the whole power of the hierarchy against 
them. Yet this Inquisitorial system of the 
Church of Rome must be abolished. The 
rights of conscience must be recognized by 
the Roman Catholics of this country, and their 
ecclesiastical and educational systems must 
come under the inspection and regulation of 
the civil law, so far as to secure the civil rights, 
and the rights of conscience also, to every un- 
fortunate one who may need the protection of 
law ; and if politicians and statesmen will not 



DANGERS OF CA THOLICISM, 28/ 

meet the responsibility of this question, the 
people must set them aside and elect men to 
make laws for us who are not afraid of the 
power, and who can not be influenced by the 
money of the hierarchy. 

Thus we have tried to point out some of 
the principal dangers of this country from the 
power and influence of the Church of Rome ; 
and if we can only succeed in waking up the 
public mind to the importance of this mo- 
mentous question we shall be satisfied, know- 
ing that all that is necessary is to get the pub- 
lic mind once turned to the question, to see its 
vast importance and the necessity of taking 
hold of it at once, and settling it in such a 
manner as shall prevent the evils that now 
threaten us from this quarter. 



THE END. 



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